Fía Benitez (CV)
Fía Benitez is a research-driven artist and educator living in Los Angeles. Their ongoing body of work, Root Rot, encompasses large-scale graphite drawings, collage, turn of the century artifacts, and bisque-fired ceramics. Incorporating research from public archives, works in Root Rot index the legacies of the California citrus industry and its history of indigenous dispossession, erasure of immigrant labor, and privatization of land management practices. Fía is a 2022 REEF Artist-in-Residence and a 2020 Research & Practice Fellow, with recent solo and group exhibitions at The Reef, Tin Flats, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, 7313 Melrose, Newhall Crossings, Other Places Art Fair, and CalArts. Publications include the artist book and catalog re:connections, anthology water / relic / spices, as well as Baest Journal, Sublevel Magazine, The Kitchen Blog, and the Vassar Review. Fía holds degrees from Vassar College and California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Fía Benitez, Stock, 2021
Graphite on matboard; The Newhall Land & Farming Co., stock certificate (1917)
40” x 64”
Photo by Vinhay Keo
Fía Benitez, Rubbing 3, 2021
Graphite on paper; Walk of Western Stars, Newhall, CA, bronze stars on terrazzo tiles (1981–)
24” x 18”
Photo by Vinhay Keo
Fía Benitez, Health, Properties, 2021
Bisque-fired ceramic; Sunkist, California Fruit Growers Exchange, print advertisement (c. 1935)
Dimensions variable
Photo by Vinhay Keo
Fía Benitez, Untitled palimpsest, 2021
Graphite on paper; Jasper Cropsey, Evening at Paestum (1856); Bertolt Brecht, Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties (1935); UCLA Film & Television Archive at the Packard Humanities Institute Stoa, Valencia, CA (2015); CalArts Land Acknowledgement (2018-present)
6’ x 4’
Photo by Annika Klein
Fía Benitez, Five spoons, 2021
William Rogers & Son Sunkist Silverplate Fruit Spoons (c. 1910)
Dimensions variable
Photo by Annika Klein
Fía Benitez, Fountain, 2021
Bisque-fired ceramic, found tile from Santa Clara River
Dimensions variable
Photo by Annika Klein