Yarrott Benz was born in 1954 to a family with German roots in Nashville. His father was a surgeon and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, his mother was a nurse, and two of his three siblings became medical professionals. While sciences figured prominently in his family as he was growing up, visual arts instead came more instinctively to him. It was also in his DNA. His great grandfather Maximillian Benz (1848-1932) was a noted furniture designer and cabinet maker trained in Germany’s Black Forest, arriving in Nashville in time for reconstruction after the Civil War. Maximillian left behind in Germany another consequential designer in the family, his first cousin Karl Benz (1844-1929), considered the inventor of the world’s first automobile and the founder of the company bearing his family’s name.
Yarrott Benz received a BA degree in art history from Vanderbilt in 1976, and BFA and MFA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980, studying with sculptors Robert Engman and Maurice Lowe, painters Alex Katz and Neil Welliver, and visiting artist Isamu Noguchi. After living in Italy for several years, where he was an assistant to sculptor Beverly Pepper at her studio in Todi, he later opened his own studio in Ancona on the Adriatic Coast.
He has exhibited sculpture, painting and photography in solo exhibitions in Italy, New York, Philadelphia, and Nashville. Articles about his work have appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among other publications in the United States, Italy and Australia, and he has been the subject of interviews on NPR’s program Fresh Air, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, and ARD, German public radio.
In the early 1990s, Benz was an activist with Visual AIDS in New York City, and he was one of seven colleagues who designed and implemented the iconic and ubiquitous Red Ribbon project, arguably the world’s most recognizable symbol of AIDS activism and support. A year earlier, he had led the Visual AIDS committee for Night Without Light, extinguishing the lights of buildings, monuments and bridges in New York City for fifteen minutes on World AIDS Day to reflect on the devastating impact of AIDS.
For twenty-seven years he taught and chaired the departments of visual art at both Friends Seminary in New York City and Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles. As a result of the successful architecture programs he developed at both schools, he was commissioned by the National Architectural Trust in 2005 to write Building Blocks: A Curriculum on Architecture. Several of his students in architecture and photography have gone on to achieve prominence in their fields.
He authored the memoir The Bone Bridge: A Brother’s Story (Dagmar Muira, Publisher), which became an Independent Publishers Award (IPPY) gold medal winner in 2016. The book met with enthusiastic reviews. Vinton Rafe McCabe wrote in the New York Journal of Books: “The Bone Bridge is a book that deserves a large and appreciative audience for the simple reason that it is the best memoir written in recent years, one that hits the reader like a punch to the gut and leaves him, in turns, devastated, inspired, traumatized, and enlightened.”
Since 2020 he has worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with his husband, Jeroen Jurg.
EXHIBITIONS / REPRESENTATION (selected)
2024
Recent Work, solo exhibition, Chiaroscuro Contemporary, Santa Fe
2005 - 2021
Jayne Baum Gallery, NYC
2002
Oregon, solo exhibition, Degen Scharfman Gallery, NYC
2001
Degan Scharfman Gallery, NYC
Leslie Lohmann Gallery, NYC
2000
Degan Scharfman Gallery, NYC
1999
A Field Apart, solo exhibition, Degan Scharfman Gallery, NYC
Great Photography of the Twentieth Century, Curated Invitational to benefit GHMC, NYC
Denise Bilbro Fine Art, NYC
1997
Three Artists, Mary Anthony Gallery, NYC
1992
East Village Portraits, group exhibition, PS 122 Gallery, NYC
Bitter-Larkin Gallery, NYC
1990
New York/Nashville, with artist Red Grooms, Metro Arts Commission, Nashville Downtown Gallery
1988
Ten Times Twelve: A Decade of Fleisher Artists, Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Storm Turning, solo installation, New York University
Confessions, solo exhibition, Red Column Studio, Philadelphia
1987
Objet D’art, juried exhibition, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia
Animals in Art, solo exhibition, Cadme Gallery, Philadelphia
Atlanta Biennial, juried exhibition, Nexus Center for Contemporary Art
1986
East Coast juried exhibition, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, NY, juried by NYTime’s Grace Glueck and Bernice Steinbaum
In the Animal Kingdom Come, solo installation in the Sheridan Building, Philadelphia
1985
A Common Purpose, permanent solo installation, The American Red Cross Mid-South Headquarters Building, Nashville
Three person show, Butcher-Young Gallery, Philadelphia
1984
Group exhibition, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia
Testimonial, permanent installation, Hospital Corporation of America, National Headquarters Building, Nashville
1983
Challenge Exhibition Series, solo exhibition, Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Ghost Armada, temporary site-specific 300 foot long installation on the Port of History Museum, Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia
1982
Sculture da Parete, Galleria del Falconiere, solo exhibition, Ancona, Italy
Group exhibition, Galleria La Polena, Genoa, Italy
Altari, Galleria di Franco Cicconi, solo exhibition, Macerata, Italy
Fire Scaffolds, temporary hillside solo installation, Inteatro Festival, Polverigi, Italy
1981
The Kling Gallery, solo exhibition, Philadelphia
1980
The Faculty Club, solo exhibition, U of Penn, Philadelphia
BIBLIOGRAPHY (selected)
New York Journal of Books, “The Bone Bridge: A Tremendous Achievement, A Work of Truth” by Vinton Rafe McCabe, March, 2015
Lambda Literary Review, “Yarrott Benz: On Revisiting a Harrowing Adolescence”, by Christopher Bram, April 30, 2015
Publication of The Bone Bridge: A Brother’s Story, Dagmar Muira publisher, March, 2015
Interview, ARD German Public Radio, interviewer Jan Tussing, December 1, 2013
The Montreal Review, “The Heart of Florence”, January, 2013
Gulf Stream Magazine, “Wars”, May, 2013
Vintage Magazine, “Blue Pictures from Los Angeles”, June, 2010
Art & Understanding, “Stolen Lives: Yarrott Benz’s Snapshot of Loss”, Lester Strong, June, 2001
Blue Magazine (Australia), “Moving Pictures: Yarrott Benz”, Richard Waller, January, 2001
Art & Understanding, “Writing a History of Tears”, Lester Strong, January, 2001
Great Photography of the Twentieth Century, catalogue, curated exhibition to benefit Gay Men’s Health Crisis, 1999
The New York Times, “One Historical Place Swapped for Another”, Barbara Whitaker, May 10, 1998
Art at Friends: Today, Catalogue by Michael Kimmelman, April, 1992
New York Magazine, “Fast Track: Heart of Darkness”, Stephen Dubner, December 17, 1990
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Rethinking Traditions”, Stephen Salisbury, August 14, 1990
Art and Antiques, “Titans and Tornadoes”, Andrew Boynton, December, 1986
The New York Times, “A Show that Explores the Contemporary”, Phyllis Braff, November 9, 1986
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Yarrott Benz’s ‘In the Animal Kingdom Come’”, Edward J. Sozanski, July 16, 1986
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Three Artists at Fleisher”, Edward J. Sozanski, December 15, 1983
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Sculpture at Penn’s Landing”, Edward J. Sozanski, July 8, 1983
Fresh Air, interviewer Julie Burstein, National Public Radio, WHYY Radio, Philadelphia, July 12, 1983
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Modern Sculpture Goes Up in A Big Way”, July 28, 1983
Inteatro 82, Velia Papa and Roberto Cimetta, editors, Edizione delle Marche, July, 1982
Il Resto del Carlino, “E intanto uno scultore degli Stati Uniti propone una fontana per Piazza Monina”, Franco Elisei, August 6, 1982
Interview, Televisione Rete Quattro, Italian state television, interviewer Gianni del Morro, August 17, 1982
Il Corriere del Adriatico, “Yarrott Benz: Uno scultore che ha trovato nelle Marche l’ambiente ideale per la sua vena artistica”, Stefania Aracci, October 31, 1982
Il Resto del Carlino, “A fuoco le sculture di Benz”, Franco Elisei, July, 24, 1982
Interview, Radio Arancia, Ancona, Italy. Interviewer Franco Elisei, July 24, 1982
The Daily American, Rome edition, “The Fire Scaffolds by American Artist Yarrott Benz”, John Francis Lane July 12, 1982
The Tennessean, “Three Exhibitions in Italy of Yarrott Benz”, Clara Heironymous, July 10, 1982