Artist Statement

Through my art, I explore aspects of my life that have labeled me as broken.  I study my own faults to better understand how these "downfalls" might have made me a better person.  Humans are fundamentally flawed, broken or hurt; but it is important as individuals to have value.  This work is me displaying my flaws to inform viewers how these faults have shaped who I have become.     

         I grew up with dyslexia, mixing up similar letters, numbers and spelling phonetically.  I always thought that something was wrong with me.  I struggled to keep up in school and always lied about my reading.  Throughout my entire pre-college career, I never read a complete book by myself.  Gaps in my education were created, gaps I filled with creative play, building and making. 

         I deal with my personal struggle of being forgotten and swept under the rug by the American education system.  My frustration with schooling only fueled my passion for creativity resulting in this selection of recent works.  Flaws make us all human, it is about time we do not pull ourselves down because of flaws, but rather hold up our mistakes and display them as beautiful struggles. 

Artist Bio

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1995, Benjamin Delano moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was a baby.  Growing up in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, he attended both public and private schools, and was accepted to Miami University in 2013, intending to pursue an architecture degree.  In the middle of his second year, Delano changed majors from Architecture to Studio Arts with a focus in Sculpture to attain his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. 

            When 18 years old, Delano was diagnosed with dyslexia, a reading disability that causes him to mix up letters and numbers, making it difficult to read.  A lot of Delano's artwork involves the struggle around his challenges in school growing up.  These ideas grew to shape Delano's artwork to encompass his battles with identity, self worth and being told what to be by society.

            In early sculpture works, he focused on learning aspects of making.  Delano collected techniques and talents to open his imagination to possibilities of material, method, form and impact.  All of this study led to what he considers his first conceptual success, Painful Pillows (2017-2018).

            Throughout his senior year, he worked on a socially engaged public artwork project to erect four metal sculptures at a middle school outside of Chicago.  He spearheaded an exhibition at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park in Hamilton, Ohio, to display this social artwork.  This exhibit is the first of its kind to show the process of socially engaged artwork. 

            Delano now sees himself as an artist searching for identity through conceptual making and even at some points defines himself as a post-structuralist.  He has developed his craft, expanded his conceptual ideas and also had a taste of curating throughout his Miami University career.