A&U Magazine | Ben Cuevas: Cover Story
Sew What? Using fiber as one of his media, queer artist Ben Cuevas takes a softer route in his art practice to deliver hard-to-swallow concepts on HIV/AIDS & more Text & photos by Sean Black In recognizing the work of artist Ben Cuevas in 2016 for his vital, creative contributions to the discourse surrounding the AIDS pandemic, New York Times heavy-weight art critic Holland Cotter gave Cuevas a hefty nod.
Journal of Latin American & Latinx Visual Culture | Crafting a Relational Queer Body: The Knitted Artivism of Ben Cuevas
In this article, I argue that Latinx artist Ben Cuevas uses knitting-a craft associated with traditional femininity and domesticity-to propose new understandings of relational queer bodies in an era of renewed and heightened policing and abuse against racialized subjects in the 2010s and 2020s.
The New York Times | Time to Trot Out the Fishnets and Put on a Show
A museum exhibition offers an empathetic look at the intimate lives of sex workers in the L.G.B.T. community. A pair of tartan-patterned pole dance pumps, a tiny pleated schoolgirl skirt and a leather merry widow - they emerged one by one from a nondescript cardboard carton, the raffish trappings of the sex trade.
You Can't Erase Us
Ben Cuevas, a young LA Based artist, is particularly aware of this sense of erasure and of the ironies it creates. In his “Reinserted: the show center,” the artist photoshops sex workers, from photographs taken in the 80s, into the locations where...
Livable Futures | Artist Ben Cuevas encourages students to fill the campus with "soft" activism in yarn-bombing workshop
There is always a starting point. For multimedia artist, Ben Cuevas, it started with a knot. A knot in yarn, from there Cuevas took yarn and intertwined and intersected and turned it into intricate sculptural fabrications of skeletons, organs, and pharmacology. When he visited Ohio State...
A&U Magazine | Lost & Found: Safer Sex Activism
An exhibition at ONE Archives Foundation Gallery revisits the words & images that raise awareness about HIV prevention Text & Photos by Sean Black Los Angeles residents and summer visitors are encouraged not to miss the Lost & Found: Safer Sex Activism Exhibition, currently on display and extended through July 1, 2018, at ONE Gallery in West Hollywood.
Juxtapoz Magazine | A Hand-Knit Skeleton From Ben Cuevas
Ben Cuevas utilizes the medium of knitting to explore and challenge the gendered constructs and physical limitations of the craft. Check out this entire human skeleton he knit from yarn! Cuevas states that "From the political to the metaphysical, my practice is steeped in queer feminist ideologies, with an awareness of the mind, body, and spirit.
The Huffington Post | Spins on Needles: An Interview With Ben Cuevas (PHOTOS)
I discovered the work of Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist Ben Cuevas through his installation Jock Strap (a work in progress) (link NSFW), for which he sat nude in a men's locker room and knitted himself a jockstrap out of wool. Ben's fascinating work spans installation, sculpture, fiber, photography, video, performance, and sound.
Artist Highlights: Ben Cuevas
The past few weeks have been so hot that knitting is probably the last thing on your mind. For me, knitting is a year-round process, not for garment construction, but for the creation of toys and stuffed animal amigurumi projects.
Six Political Works to Check Out at Pulse Contemporary Art Fair
While celebrities and art world royalty browse for six figure art works at The Armory Show, down in Chelsea a far more down to earth fair, the 11-year-old Pulse New York, in a far more humble space, offers art to stimulate your mind and maybe enliven your living room.
Ben Cuevas and Annie Sprinkle at the 5th Los Angeles Art Book Fair
"I'VE READ MORE BOOKS THAN TRUMP," claimed a silk screen at Karl LaRocca's Kayrock Screenprinting booth at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair this weekend. "Not hard!" asserted an Angelino in a crop top amid the bustling throngs of bibliophiles.
Yes, Pulse is Totally Worth a Visit
Within five minutes of walking into Pulse, an Italian gallerist had asked me to pose for a selfie with her and then doused us both in black confetti. I think it's still stuck in my hair.
LGBT artists, exhibits featured during Miami Art Week in Miami Beach, Wynwood
A nude performance artist will knit himself a jock strap Thursday night at Hôtel Gaythering in South Beach, part of "Queer Biennial I," one of several LGBT art exhibits in town for Miami Art Week. Artist Ben Cuevas will be among 35 LGBT artists featuring more than 100 pieces of art through Sunday at Hôtel Gaythering, 1409 Lincoln Rd.
This Isn't Your Grandma's Doiley: Queer Artists Work in Fiber
With the knitted pink pussyhat on full display in recent months, a political movement may not have been born, but it certainly coalesced after Donald Trump's unexpected election victory. Knitting, however, and its sister forms, including needlepoint, embroidery, crocheting, quilting, lace, sewing, yarn-bombing and macramé, have been around for centuries.
Ben Cuevas interview, 2010 Wassaic Artist Resident
Ben Cuevas discusses his work in his studio in the Luther Barn in Wassaic, NY.
Queer Art: Ben Cuevas and Heath Daniels on Whether It is Really 'Queer' | WEHOville
In a community where the spotlight is more often on go go dancers, drag queens, DJs and party promoters, there also exists a creative community of queer artists. WEHOville has identified a few of them and will be publishing interviews with them over coming months.
Art of the AIDS Years: What Took Museums So Long?
For my generation of American gay men, the AIDS epidemic was a second Vietnam War. It reached us as a rumor and soon revealed itself as a killing field. Just as the war had divided the country, so did AIDS.