Ib Benoh (né Ibrahim Benoh) is an American multidisciplinary artist of Jordanian-Syrian-Libyan origin. Benoh's lifelong efforts to break the confines of geographical, cultural, and social boundaries as he lived across four continents, seeking personal freedom and redefining identity, gave way to a wide range of works. He has worked in painting, sculpture, drawing, two and three-dimensional construction, traditional and digital printmaking, new media, poetry, critical writing, and scholarly research.
Benoh exhibited at various galleries and museums. He had solo and group shows in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, and the United States, including New York where he was recognized by Betty Parsons in 1980. Though he left the art market in 1988, Benoh continued focusing on experimental work that led to his breakthrough approach to painting and new media.
Benoh's early exposure to infinity, the Sufi practice of oneness that transcends artificial divisions — along with reading extensively on the various philosophical thoughts of the ancient and contemporary scientific approach to understanding oneself and our world — fueled his work over the years. Ideas within the realm of infinity seeped into his work, such as interconnectedness, transformation, regeneration, continuity, variations, boundlessness, expansiveness, motion, timelessness, weightlessness, and nothingness. He creates harmony between the visual and the poetic as his artworks develop simultaneously with his poems.
Early life
Born to Jordanian-Syrian parents of Libyan descent, Benoh lived in Amman for the first four years of his life until his family moved to Damascus. His mother, Afifa Abi Al Haj, was privately educated. His father, Hasan Benoh, first served in the Jordanian government and later the Syrian government. Benoh's paternal grandfather, Ibrahim Bin Nuh (Noah or Benoh), an olive oil producer and head of a high school in Khoms, Libya, died not long after fleeing his homeland to evade capture by the Italian invaders for his role in funding the resistance.
Though his family lived in humble surroundings, Benoh had a culturally vibrant upbringing, one filled with art, poetry, music, literature, and storytelling. His mother often played the oud and sang at family gatherings. One of Benoh's earliest memories is spending Thursday evenings watching and imitating the Sufis next door, chanting and spinning.
Growing up, Benoh exhibited a ferocious appetite for literature. He had access to books that had belonged to his late maternal grandfather, a judge, who had left behind a fascinating library, including handwritten and hand-illustrated books. After school, Benoh educated himself by reading extensively on various subjects, including medicine, science, regional and international law, the three Abrahamic religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, poetry, and philosophy by Sufis and other intellectuals.
Besides reading, Benoh also devoted much of his time through his teen years to writing, drawing, and painting. He wrote short stories, plays, poetry, thoughts, and observations. Often Benoh painted with watercolors on paper outdoors using river water, developing a ritual of sending his finished watercolor paintings down one of the seven rivers flowing through Damascus and watching his work fade away.
Benoh grew up in a family of artists. His maternal grandmother created quilts. She involved him in gathering scrap fabrics from friends and family and had him select the cut pieces for her designs. Benoh’s maternal uncle Mahmoud Jalal was a respected artist in the region. Growing up, Benoh dreamt of traveling to Rome to study at the art academy just like his uncle and cousin Khaled Jalal had done before him.
As his appetite for learning new skills grew, Benoh actively sought instruction. Not finding a local source, he enrolled in a mail correspondence program with an art school in Paris. His first major purchase with his allowance was a book on Renaissance art, his prized possession, which he cherished and diligently studied. Adding to his daily independent activities, Benoh began dabbling with clay sculpting. His insatiable appetite for growing his artistic skills was finally satisfied when he enrolled at a newly established art center in downtown Damascus.