Title: When in Rome

Location: City of Rome, New York

After successfully receiving funding from the New York State Department of State Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, the City of Rome commissioned Joan Benefiel to create an art installation to enhance the Art Walk Corridor in the West Dominick Street Arts District. As stated on the city website, “The project seeks to use strategic placemaking via art as a way to strengthen the downtown district, ultimately attracting more visitors and residents.”

Inspired by the determination and innovation of the people of Rome throughout the City’s history, Joan sculpted an arrangement of interactive dynamic glowing artworks atop varying height steel columns for the intersection of W. Dominick & N. James Street. The design reflects the committee’s theme of "Honoring the past, Envisioning the future" and serves as a welcoming beacon to explore the district.

The walking sculptures represent the energy and bustle of the downtown vibe while the watchful, working sculptures atop the tallest columns look both to the past and future while representing the ingenuity and productivity of the people of Rome through its history and today.

Additionally, their glow is a metaphor for the light that is inside us all and the bond that brings communities together.

The colors of the installation are inspired by Rome's connection to water (blues and greens) and its commitment to continuous building and rebuilding throughout its history (represented by referencing a day’s changing light from morning to night with bright yellow of daylight through the deepening purples of a sunset).

 The rich coppery patina of the steel columns references Rome's reputation as the "CopperCity”.

Title: Power of Possibility

“Dedicated to all the Women of Wesleyan, who serve as the bedrock of our past, support us in the present, and encourage the possibilities for our futures”. - Class of 1970

Dedicated: September 28, 2022

Location: Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, SD

Size: 10-feet tall x 5-foot square

Materials: Hand-tinted custom mixed “Dakota Blue” resin on stainless steel columns (x6)

Title: Eventide Rhythm Public Art Installations (Formerly known as "Pilings Project Sculptures")
Year: 2010-2016
Materials: Hand-tinted cast resin, wood, steel
Locations: The Broadway Pedestrian Plazas b/t Times Square & Herald Square; New York, NY / LA LIVE in Nokia Plaza; Los Angeles, CA / Rye Arts Center; Rye, NY / Rye Town park; Rye, NY

Commissioned to create and install thirty 10-foot tall Pilings Project sculptures along five city blocks on Broadway in New York City by the Fashion Center Business Improvement District and NYC-DOT.

Selected to be the installation artists for the LA debut of New York’s Affordable Art Fair, we crated and shipped fifteen of our 10-foot tall resin, wood & steel sculptures to Nokia Plaza and worked directly with the LA LIVE and Marriott engineers to install them around the plaza. The installation drew attention and focus to the art fair and accompanying events.

In conjunction with the "Beyond Rodin: The Human Form Unleashed" contemporary art exhibition at the Rye Arts Center, we installed fifteen of the 10-foot tall sculptures along the town's main shopping district on Purchase Street as well as on the lawn of the Arts Center, coordinating and working together with city engineering and Public Works Department.

Title: The Nassau County Vietnam Veterans War Monument
Year: 2005
Materials: Cast bronze, laser engraved polished stacked granite, bronze inlaid cast cement
Size: 14-feet tall x 15-feet wide x 15-feet deep
Location: Eisenhower State Park, Long Island, NY
Team:  Shannon Diamondstein and Hui Min Chan, Architects / Joan Benefiel, Sculptor

Unique Veteran’s memorial sculpture symbolizing the powerful bond between all those who
served. Two 12-foot tall soldier’s hands bound together as one with dog tag chain and a set of
anonymous tags hang in the hollow space between the hands to chime gently in the wind. Base
comprised of stacked and engraved polished granite and cast cement map with bronze inlays
marking battle locations.

Title: Helmsley Building lobby wall relief sculptures
Year: 2010
Media: Bronze
Size: 6-foot tall x 30 linear feet
Location: Park Avenue; New York, NY

A pair of massive bronze bas-relief lobby wall sculptures comprised of 80 individual panels that flank the elevator banks in the historic building lobby. Joan hand sculpted and carved the 1/2" deep relief sculptures from wood, wax and clay.  Designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, the images were first painted by Chris Ludlow and produced by Excalibur Bronze Sculpture Foundry.  In addition to sculpting, Joan assisted in overseeing the foundry process performed by Excalibur for the mold-making and lost wax bronze casting through installation. Approved by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Title: Hoodoos

Year: 2019

Materials: Hand-tinted custom-mixed “Sea Glass” resin on COR-TEN steel columns (x3)

Size: 8-feet tall

This sculpture, “Hoodoos”, is titled after the geological rock formations of the same name and with similar shapes found in the southwest and High Plains of the United States and around the world. They are typically tall, thin spires of rock formed by erosion. These formations are sculptural and often look like figures or animals. Inspired by her memories of visiting them as a child, Joan combines rocky abstract forms with figurative movement and gesture to convey power, beauty, and artistic movement. The resin, its color and translucence, is a reference to the waters that formed the formations, and also is a celebration of human spirit, inner light, and life. 

Photo credit: Brandon Alms Photography

Title: Breathe (formerly known as "Reach")
Year: 2014
Materials: Hand tinted and cast “Classic Orange” resin mounted on stainless steel
Size: 11-feet tall
Locations: Pikes Peak Community College, downtown Campus, Colorado Springs; Art on the Streets, Colorado Springs, CO; Sculpture Walk Springfield, MO; Nova's Ark Sculpture Park; East Hampton, NY / Distrikt Hotel, 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan; New York, NY / Rye Town Park; Rye, NY

Previously Breathe was featured in the traffic circle on Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs for the Art on the Streets exhibition, beautifully placed with Pikes Peak in the background.  Last year it was the signature piece of the Inaugural Sculpture Walk Springfield, MO public art exhibition, on the balcony of The Springfield Brewery through May 2017. Premiered at Art Hamptons Sculpture Park with Island Weiss Gallery / Exhibited in front of the Distrikt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, co-sponsored by the hotel and the NYC Garment District Art Alliance / Beacon of the multi-sculpture installation at Rye Town Park overlooking the Long Island Sound in 2015.

Title: Examen; St. Ignatius of Loyola Memorial Sculpture
Year: 2011
Media: Bronze, granite
Size: 7-feet high x 5-feet wide x 9-feet long
Location: Fairfield University; CT

In our winning design for this national competition, the sculpture depicts St. Ignatius intently engaged in the Jesuit practice called “Examen”, which means to scrutinize oneself and the good and evil in one’s conscience. The life-like realistic portraits of the Saint are light and dark to represent good and evil as they dramatically face off with each other.