These Days is pleased to announce Cowgirl Dental Floss, a solo presentation of new works by Heather Benjamin. Benjamin’s newest body of work begins the next chapter in her continuing diaristic mythology; an unrestrained episodic narrative which has spanned the artist’s career thus far, always starring an evolving protagonist, acting as an avatar for Benjamin herself. Embracing the impetus to explicitly use the personal in art, her characters play out the multiple facets of the artist’s psyche as she moves through the different phases of womanhood and explores her trauma. This most recent installment stars an untamed cowgirl on the run from those who have restrained her, and from past versions of herself.
Known widely for her zines and self–published books of drawings, Benjamin’s new body of work pays homage to, as well expands upon, her DIY roots. Print material, accessible to the masses and ephemeral by nature, opens an in–depth conversation around the complexities of Benjamin’s work. Paper, easily written off as a “lesser” material due to its impermanence, is celebrated here for both its instability and fragility. A drawing on a sheet of sun–aged newsprint, or a photocopied image on delicate rag paper, becomes less a substrate and more a protagonist, as our first concern might be that the drawing will fall apart.
The lone cowgirl navigates her psychedelic emotional landscape, bursting with raw emotion, learning of her own power and wielding it both tenderly and triumphantly in her journey to evolve to her next form. She works to make sense of her damages, lick her wounds and extract beauty from her dilemmas. The essence of Cowgirl Dental Floss is a story of energy and empowerment as much as one of terror and dysphoria, for there is no progression without discomfort.
Heather Benjamin (b. 1989, Tarrytown, New York) lives and works in New York City. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016 with a BFA in Printmaking. Benjamin began self-publishing zines and artist books of her drawings in 2008. Since then, she has maintained her bookmaking and self–publishing practices while simultaneously branching out into making larger scale drawings and paintings, as well as animating, working with ceramics and textiles, and curating. All of her work is firmly rooted in DIY/punk ethics and culture and feminist ideas. She has exhibited her work extensively, including at Miami Art Basel, SPRING/BREAK, Mana Contemporary, Muddguts, Andrew Edlin, and more. Cowgirl Dental Floss is Benjamin's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.
