Jurriaan Benschop is a Dutch writer and curator who is based in Athens and Berlin. In his book Why Painting Works (2023) he navigates the diverse landscape of contemporary painting. For his previous book Salt in the Wound he traveled across the European continent, to speak with leading contemporary artists about their work and artistic roots.
For Artforum magazine he has reviewed more than 80 exhibitions and he contributes on a regular basis to the Baltic Arterritory website and to The Brooklyn Rail. He wrote essays for numerous museum catalogs (Museum Voorlinden, Kröller-Müller Museum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Sprengel Museum Hannover a.o) and artists’ books (Natascha Schmitten, Nikos Aslanidis, Veronika Hilger, Lara de Moor, Angelika Trojnarski a.o.).
Among the exhibitions he curated are Wo man sich trifft (Emsdettener Kunstverein, 2023), Taking Root at KIT Düsseldorf (2019-20), Content is a Glimpse (2018-19) at Efremidis Berlin, Re: Imagining Europe (2017) at Box Freiraum Berlin, A Matter of Touch (2020) at Kunsthaus Torstrasse 111 in Berlin and A Grammar of Gestures (2021-22) at Kourd Gallery in Athens.
As a visiting lecturer he regularly travels to art schools in Europe and the USA , for talks, studio visits and to conduct writing workshops. Among the schools he visited are Indiana University in Bloomington, University of Arkansas in Fayettville, University of Chicago, University of South Carolina in Aiken, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the University of the Arts in Helsinki, the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn and the Art Academy of Latvia in Riga.
Portrait author: © Marc Mulders, 2021