Artist · Holland Tunnel 2021, 2026
Jeffrey L. Benjamin
Also known as Jeffrey Lee Benjamin, Jeff Benjamin
Artist · Archaeologist · Professor
Jeffrey L. Benjamin is an artist and archaeologist based in the Catskills who makes and writes about work in the space between archaeological research and art. A Columbia PhD who now teaches at the University of Maine, Orono, he showed with his students in The Dark Abyss of Time (2026).
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Biography
Jeffrey L. Benjamin moves between archaeology and art. He studied at St.
Olaf College, then earned an MS in industrial archaeology at Michigan Technological University in 2013. His thesis, Sound As Artifact, reconstructed the soundscape of the Quincy Mining Company blacksmith shop and proposed the 'sonifact', a sound that persists through time, as a kind of archaeological evidence. At Columbia University he took an MPhil (2017) and a PhD in anthropology, writing on the sensory history of industry, including 'An Archaeology of Air' and a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Memory.
As a Columbia Teaching Scholar in 2019 he created the course Principles of Art in Archaeological Practice. It included a small campus dig staged as a 'happening', and the students' work went on view as The Soil Is Sentient in Low Library Rotunda in 2020. He exhibited with The International Society of Antiquaries in The Longue Durée at Holland Tunnel Newburgh in 2021, the same year an archaeological excavation and performance took place on the gallery grounds.
For The Dark Abyss of Time (2026) he showed abstract paintings on paper, some in the form of vertical scrolls, made with iron and copper oxide pigments he collected at ancient mining sites during a residency at Kotoki Art Space on Serifos. He also showed an assemblage by his University of Maine students that responds to glass, ceramic and plastic finds from the 2021 dig.
Practice. Abstract paintings and scrolls made with pigments gathered from mines and archaeological sites, collaborative assemblages built from excavated finds, and writing on the sound, air and sensory side of industrial history. He treats excavation itself as a creative, performative act.
Holland Tunnel record
Every show and performance at Holland Tunnel, with the artists who were part of it.
- 2026
- 2021
Connections
Who Jeffrey has shown or played with at Holland Tunnel, plus collaborators in the directory.Shown togetherWider circle
Wider circle
- Greg SlickFellow exhibitor in The Longue Durée (2021); curator of The Dark Abyss of Time (2026)
- The International Society of AntiquariesExhibited with the collective at Holland Tunnel Newburgh (2021)
- Olivia Baldwin, Kyle Cottier, Elisa PritzkerCo-exhibitors in The Longue Durée (2021)
- Brian BoydPhD adviser at Columbia (per GSAS dissertation listing)
- Susan R. MartinMS thesis adviser, Michigan Tech
- Ben Kinmont, Marko Marila, Tim Flohr Sørensen, Suvi TuominenVisiting artists who lent work to The Soil Is Sentient (2020)
- Mars Baker, Amy Bradford, Brady Emery, Sterling Green, Patrick Marschhausen, Patricia Maher, Deirdre McGrath, Elizabeth Rodgers, Cass SmithUniversity of Maine students in his collaborative assemblage for The Dark Abyss of Time
- Kotoki Art Space, SerifosResidency host
Career timeline
- 1988BA, St. Olaf College
- 2013MS in industrial archaeology, Michigan Technological University (thesis: Sound As Artifact)
- 2014Published 'Industrial Sonifact and the Soundscape of the Anthropocene' in the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology
- 2017MPhil in anthropology, Columbia University
- 2019Taught Principles of Art in Archaeological Practice at Columbia as a Teaching Scholar; led an excavation-performance on Morningside campus
- 2020Curated The Soil Is Sentient, a student exhibition in Columbia's Low Library Rotunda
- 2021Exhibited in The Longue Durée (International Society of Antiquaries), Holland Tunnel Newburgh; excavation and performance on the gallery grounds
- PhD in anthropology/archaeology, Columbia University; dissertation 'All Inhibitory Is Dream: An Archaeology of Anaesthesia'
- Residency at Kotoki Art Space, Serifos, Greece
- 2026The Dark Abyss of Time with his University of Maine, Orono students, Holland Tunnel Revisited
Selected exhibitions
| 2026 | The Dark Abyss of Time (with University of Maine students) | Holland Tunnel Revisited, Newburgh, NY |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | The Longue Durée (International Society of Antiquaries) | Holland Tunnel Newburgh, Newburgh, NY |
| 2020 | The Soil Is Sentient: An Ar(t)chaeological Exhibit (curator) | Low Library Rotunda, Columbia University, New York, NY |
Publications
- 2013Sound As Artifact (MS thesis) · Michigan Technological University
- 2014Industrial Sonifact and the Soundscape of the Anthropocene · Journal of Contemporary Archaeology
- 2015Listening to Industrial Silence: Sound as Artifact
- 2016The Repeated Tone of Civilization
- 2018An Archaeology of Air
- 2018Chicago River as Hyperobject (co-author)
- 2019Remembered into Place · Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Memory
- All Inhibitory Is Dream: An Archaeology of Anaesthesia (PhD dissertation) · Columbia University Academic Commons
Press
- 2020The soil is sentient: An Ar(t)chaeological Exhibit Columbia Center for Archaeology
- 2021The Longue Durée Columbia Center for Archaeology news