Benjamin Freedman

Artist presently living and working in Toronto, Canada.

ben.a.freedman@gmail.com

(514) 793-1907

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About

Benjamin Freedman is a lens-based artist working within sculpture, video and photography. His practice often revisits and examines complex histories through extensive research and study. He is interested in photographic research as a form of pseudo archaeology where reinterpretation and disruption lead to restorative discoveries. While probing the relative truths and deceptions of photography, he purposefully adopts visual vocabularies from genres such as science fiction and horror in an effort to create expanded documentary projects. He self-published his first photography book in 2015, and has exhibited extensively across the greater Toronto area, most recently at Pumice Raft Gallery, Stephen Bulger Gallery, The Image Centre, 8eleven Gallery, Art Gallery of Mississauga, and Division Gallery and has shared his work internationally at the Aperture Foundation in New York City

He has participated on steering committees for the annual Toronto Art Book Fair, the SNAP! Live Auction and as an artist advisory committee member for The Patch Project, an award-winning charity that animates Toronto’s public spaces with artwork. From 2015 – 2021, Freedman was the Artistic Project Manager at the CONTACT Photography Festival, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and fostering the art and profession of photography with an annual Festival in May and year-round programming in the CONTACT Gallery. CONTACT embraces an inclusive and accessible approach to the medium and cultivates collaborations with artists, curators, institutions and organizations. Freedman oversaw and helped develop the public installation program that positions artwork within high profile sites across the GTA. The installations activate sites spatially to challenge the ways we perceive and interact with photographs while drawing attention to the significance of art within the everyday.

CV

EDUCATION

2021-2023

Master of Design, Photography, École cantonal d’art Lausanne (Écal), Lausanne.

2009-2013

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto.

IN PRINT

PhotoEd, Meld Issue, #76, 2025

Harpers Bazaar Italy, CLASH!, Issue 18, 2025

FOAM Magazine, Missing Mirror, Issue #66, 2024

FRAME Magazine, Generation Generative, Issue 157, 2024

Masonneuve Magazine, The Technology Issue, Summer 2023

T, Le magazine du Temps, 26 aout 2023

SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

Surface Imperfect, Ptolemy World, New York, 2025 (upcoming)

Positive Illusions, Vontobel, Zurich, Switzerland, 2024

Positive Illusions, Images Vevey, Vevey, Switzerland, 2024

A Breaking Point, A Delicate Balancing Act, RIXC Gallery, Riga, Latvia, 2024

Facades, Gallery 64, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea, 2023

Jake, VRAL - Milan Machinima Festival, Milan, Italy, 2023

Exquisite Corpse, Pumice Raft, Toronto, Ontario, 2020

OFORT, Ryerson Image Center, Toronto, Ontario, 2017

New Votives, 8-11 Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, 2016

Lab Notes, Art Metropole, Toronto, 2015

Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, 2014

Alliance Française Gallery, Toronto, 2013

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Automated Photography, Foto/Industria, Milan, 2023

Lausanne Underground Film Festival, Lausanne, 2023

MetaContraVerse, GESTURE Paris, Paris, 2022

Won Syat, Platform L, Seoul, 2022

The Final Frontier, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, Summer 2019

C-Magazine Art Auction, Location TBD, Toronto, Spring 2019

Workhorse Show Pony, Access Gallery, Vancouver, 2018

Photorama, Gallery TPW, Toronto, 2018

Flash Forward, Division Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, 2016

In Situ, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto, Ontario , 2016

Black Mirror, Aperture Gallery, New York, New York, 2015

89+ Marathon, SPBH, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2013

Nuit Blanche, Carlton Cinema, Toronto, 2013

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

Long List - New Generation Photography Award, Canadian Photography Institute, 2018

Gibraltar Point Artist Residency, 2017

Flash Forward Winner, 2016

NES Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland Nov 2014-Jan 2015

CONTACT / Alliance Française Award, 2012-2013

Dean's List, Ryerson University, 2011-2013

Snap!Star, 2012

Robert S. Gooblar Scholarship, 2011

LECTURES/TALKS

Ryerson University, Toronto, 2017

The Assembly, The Rubber Factory, New York City, 2016

Walk the Talk, artist talk with Elisa Julia Gilmour, Art Gallery of Mississauga, 2014

New Modes of Image Making (Panel Discussion), Contact Photography Festival, Beaver Hall Gallery, Toronto,

ON (With Jimmy Limit, Aaron Friend Lettner, Lili Huston-Heterich, Vanessa Runions, Felix

Kalmenson, and Sam Cotter), 2013

Nostalgia for the Present, Forgetus Collective 163 Sterling Rd. Unit 29, Toronto, ON (With Kyle Broman,

Andrea Leigh Pelletier), 2011