M. Benjamin Herndon

M. BENJAMIN HERNDON

19 DECEMBER 2025 — 08 FEBRUARY 2026

M. BENJAMIN HERNDON TOWARD SILENCE

TOWARD SILENCE

Spanning nearly a decade of practice, Toward Silence traces M. Benjamin Herndon’s evolving engagement with the phenomena of light, color and materiality, examining how one’s perception may shift as their physical perspective does. Comprising nine works rendered primarily with metal oxide pigments and graphite, on linen, granite, wood, and paper, Toward Silence embodies Herndon’s union of scientific precision and spiritual inquiry in material form.

Working within a minimalist visual language, Toward Silence invites a deliberate slowing of perception, requiring the viewer’s eyes to adjust and attune to subtle shifts in light and color. Though abstract, his works are deeply connected to both his and the viewer’s lived experience. A flash of light across a waterfall or the faint glow of dawn may not serve as a subject to be depicted, but as a catalyst for creation and an impulse from which the work begins.

Prior to creating most of the works in Toward Silence, Herndon’s work “centered on darkness, and on finding ways for light to emerge from it.” His movement from darkness to light, however, is less a departure from but rather a revelation and recognition of the dualities that have always guided his practice. During a printmaking residency, the artist

began experimenting with interference pigments – microscopic metal oxides that shift in color depending on the viewer’s angle and the quality of light. This discovery became a physical manifestation of the unity that had always underpinned his work, in which a single material can contain its opposite. He writes, “It was as if the work passed through a prism and came out the other side with the full spectrum of light and all its glorious color.” His process is guided by curiosity and experimentation, where he mixes dry pigments and applies them with exacting ratios onto surfaces layered and burnished by hand and structures built from carved granite, wood, and paper.

In Toward Silence, Herndon considers quiet as both subject and method – a way of being that resists the noise of contemporary visual culture. His work emerges from a state of deep listening, where sound, light, and material converge in meditative

stillness. Translating the rhythms of music and the natural world into visual form, Herndon invites viewers to slow their perception and enter a space of calm awareness – one that moves, as he writes, “toward the silence of contemplation.”

M. Benjamin Herndon grew up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California and now lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he makes work in his studio in an historic textile mill. Herndon received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016 and his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2012. He has been an artist in residence at the Tamarind Institute for Fine Art Lithography, the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and Marble House Project, among others. His work has been exhibited in galleries across the United States, France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and China.

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on paper, foil papers, acrylic, mahogany

8 1/2 x 132 x 1 1/2 inches

LIFT, SECOND STATE, 2023-2025

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on

18 3/8 x 34 1/2 x 1 3/8 inches

UNTITLED, 2016

Silverpoint, pigment, gelatin, and marble dust on linen

22 x 20 inches

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES, 2023-2024

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on douglas

fir panel

18 3/8 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches

A CANTICLE TO GLORIES, 2023-2024

13 1/4 x 15 5/8 x 1 7/8 inches

YES, AND, 2018-2025

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on engraved

stone lithograph

Framed dimensions 19 1/2 x 23 3/4 inches

2024-2025

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on Westerly pink granite

13 1/2 x 4 x 1 1/8 inches

VEIL, SECOND STATE, 2024-2025

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on granite

5 3/4 x 3 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches

ONE AND THE SAME, 2024-2025

Metal oxide pigments and graphite on Westerly

4 1/4 x 4 x 1 3/4 inches

M. BENJAMIN HERNDON

Born 1985, Northern California

Lives and Works in Providence, RI

EDUCATION

2014-16 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI

2010-12 BFA with Honors, School of Visual Arts, New York NY

2004-07 Studied philosophy at Reed College and Portland State University; mathematics at University of Nevada, Reno

SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2025 Toward Silence, Maya Frodeman Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY

More than Any Mirror, twoperson exhibition with Adie Russell, Headstone Gallery, Kingston, NY

2024 The Void of Space, curated by Ping Zheng (with Ben Weiner), Kristen Lorello Gallery, New York, NY

2023 andforththroughthemista mountainameadow, (solo exhibition) Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL

2018 Graphite Paintings, (solo exhibition) A R E A, Boston, MA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025 Invisible, Angell Street Galleries, Providence, RI Intermezzo, 24Beaubourg Gallery, Paris, France Spectrum, Kristen Lorello Gallery, New York, NY

In Between: Spaces of Belonging, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI WoMen (Us), Hanyen &

Lindberg House, Providence, RI

2024 Look Harder, See More, Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI

2022 Transitions, A.M. Bjiere Gallery, New York, NY

2021 Shape in All its Forms, Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY

2020 Materia, Bermel von Luxburg Galerie, Berlin, Germany Currency, BAIT15, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

2019 Holiday, LABspace, Hillsdale, NY

Grounded, Rule Gallery, Denver, CO

FIELDS: Color, Tone, Vision, Inde/Jacobs Gallery, Marfa, TX

In the Stillness, Freud Monk Gallery, online exhibition

2018 Selections for Chinati

Weekend, Inde/Jacobs Gallery, Marfa, TX

Forms of Expression: Geometric Abstraction, organized by A R E A at the Yard, Boston, MA Collage II, A R E A, Boston, MA

RISD Faculty Exhibition, RISD Museum, Providence, RI

The Nature Lab, curated by Eric Wolf, LABSpace, Hillsdale, NY

RISD Printmaking Department Triennial, Woods-Gerry Gallery Providence, RI

2017 Collage, A R E A, Boston, MA

Art Shenzhen 2017, Art Fair, Showing with Tang Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China

Implicit, Miranda Kuo Gallery, New York, NY

Everlasting, curated by Ting Liu, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Awagami Print Expression, Bumpodo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2016 Stand Out Prints, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN

11th Annual Juried Exhibition, curated by Gregory Volk, Axis Gallery Sacramento, CA

New Contemporaries, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI

The Glare, curated by Leah Wolff, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY

RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition, Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, RI

Vanishing Point, Former Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ Sprung, Rabbithole Projects, Brooklyn, NY

New Prints: Winter, International Print Center of New York, NYC

Lasting Impressions, 505 Fletcher, Providence, RI

2015 Sanctus, Curious Matter Gallery, Jersey City, NJ

Language vs. Language, curated by Maya Krinsky, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI

Making Meaning, Drift Contemporary Art Gallery, Portsmouth, NH

Open15 Online Exhibition, Front Art Space, New York, NY

Spring, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI

2014 Printmaking Department

Triennial, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

2012 Urban Legends, curated by Mollie Thonneson, Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ

Natural, curated by Richard Brooks, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY

Material Magic / Print Settings,

BFA Fine Arts Department show, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY

Itsa Small Small World, curated by Hennessy Youngman, Family Business Gallery, New York, NY

Affordable Art Fair, School of Visual Arts’ booth, curated by Dan Halm, New York, NY

BFA Fine Arts Open Studios, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

2011 Topophilia, curated by Eric Lendl, SVA Gallery, New York, NY

BFA Fine Arts Open Studios, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

2010 Main Street Artists Gallery, Quincy, CA

2009 The Studio Gallery, Quincy, CA

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2022 Fellowship in Painting, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

2020 Tamarind Institute, Artist Residency, Albuquerque NM

2019 Rose Museum Emerging Artist Purchase Award Finalist, Brandeis University, Waltham MA

2018 Tamarind Institute, Summer Workshop, Albuquerque NM

2017 Marble House Projects Residency, Dorset VT

Josef & Anni Albers Foundation Residency, Bethany CT

2016 Vermont Studio Center Residency & Grant

RISD Graduate Studies Grant 2014-16

RISD Graduate Division Fellowship

2012 School of Visual Arts Alumni Grant

School of Visual Arts

Undergraduate Fine Arts Thesis Award

2010-12 Silas H. Rhodes Scholarship

Dean’s List, School of Visual Arts

PUBLICATIONS

2025 Chronogram, “More Than Any Mirror: Herndon and Russell…” two-person exhibition review, by Iris Cushing

2023 FLAUNT, “andforththroughthe mistamountainameadow,” solo exhibition review, by Sarah Plummer 2019 freudmonkgallery.com, interview with curator Adam Reid Fox

New England Home, feature by William Morgan, Boston MA

2018 Boston Globe, Critic’s Pick, Graphite Paintings at A R E A, by Cate McQuaid

New American Paintings, Issue 135, MFA Annual, Boston MA

SVA Journal, Alumni Feature, School of Visual Arts Press, New York NY

SVA Lookbook (for prospective students), School of Visual Arts Press, New York NY

ArtMaze Mag, Winter Issue 6, London, England

The Nature Lab (exhibition catalog), LABSpace, Hillsdale NY

2017 yngspc.com, interview with curator Kate Mothes

Eternity (exhibition catalog), Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Studio Visit Magazine, Volume 38, Summer 2017, Boston MA

Awagami Print Expression (exhibition catalog), Bumpodo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2016 11th Annual Juried Exhibition

(catalog), essay by Gregory Volk, Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Vanishing Point (exhibition catalog), Art House Productions Press, Jersey City, NJ

2015 RISD XYZ, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI

Sanctus (exhibition catalog), Curious Matter Gallery, Jersey City NJ

Open15 Publication, Front Art Space, New York NY

2013 Humans of New York, photoblog feature, New York NY

20 Twenty, curated by, and essay by Phong Bui, School of Visual Arts Press, New York NY

MAYA FRODEMAN GALLERY

66 SOUTH GLENWOOD STREET

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING

TEL 307 733 0555

This catalog complements M. Benjamin Herndon’s Exhibition TOWARD SILENCE

Maya Frodeman Gallery

19 December 2025 - 08 February 2026

© 2025 All Rights Reserved

Untitled, 2016, Silverpoint, pigment, gelatin, and marble dust on linen

MAYA FRODEMAN GALLERY