Ben Truong Art - About Me

Artist Bio

Benjamin Truong is a first generation Asian American artist, born and raised in New York, Long Island. He is a MFA candidate at Stony Brook University. Truong works with traditional art mediums such as ink, oil, watercolor, and lithography. He has also served as the teaching assistant for Howardena Pindell, Jason Paradis and Lorena Salcedo-Watson. Truong has participated and was chosen for several exhibitions including LBIF’s 35 under 35 2024, North Carolina’s SCHWA Show 2024, Aspace’s “OOPS UNFORTUNATELY” 2025, and the Kobe Japan Exchange Program 2025. His work deals in etiology, with overarching themes of absurdism and surrealism.

Summary of Intent

My artwork is a byproduct of my own masochism throughout my current life. I absorb stories, concepts, imagery, history, and all information that I come across. I contemplate ideas, and then I create images. Trials and experiments are enjoyable to me, and so is my failure. I favor mediums that have little room for error, failure is fun to me, starting over and learning from mistakes forces me to evolve. I generally deal in drawing, painting, and printmaking. Gum arabic and steel needle drawings on lithographic stones are my current favorite medium. It is the work I produce only after dozens of mistakes and contemplations that excites me.

Artist Statement

Why are things the way they are? Are things we perceive today, the way they have always been? And if not, what were they like in the past? My art in its essence is etiology, etymology, and mythology. I am interested in the origin of all things and their definitions over time. I choose what topics I want to research. I became inspired by all things that are now foreign, unheard of, underrepresented, or censored in our modern western culture. I reference history and storytelling in my work through the use of iconography from different cultures around the world. I think that, if a “picture is worth a thousand words”, then the inverse should be true.

When producing art, I have a tendency to work with mental images of subjects that I have studied and memorized in the past. For instance, by having knowledge of the anatomy of fish gills, or frog appendages, I am able to incorporate them into anything that I want to depict. I manipulate these subjects mentally on a three dimensional plane. I place, distort, and meld them with other images to create strange compositions, perspectives and new organic forms.

I believe that many artists end up creating work with ingredients that have already been laid out for them, without questioning it. While I have the tendency to question the ingredients themselves. When depicting two lovers why does a man and a woman typically come to mind? When imagining a family pet, why does a dog or cat come to mind? When depicting death, why is the first thing most people think of human remains or disease? My desire with my work is to alter these preconceived ideas of imagery and stop the recycling of old reference material.

In my work I am always seeking ways to create new and interesting ways of depicting something. This usually leads me towards a path of absurd subject matter. When it comes to colors I use what I think is appropriate, which is usually what isn't. And my compositions typically break the ideas of light, shadow, space and gravity.

The quantity of my artwork is imperative. I generally produce a series or several works in a large quantity, hence my tendency to gravitate towards lithography. This lets me decide what appears to me, is visually successful and unsuccessful.Then move my next image towards the appropriate direction.