KBAI: Painting
June 5-18, 2026
Resident Faculty: Professor Gianna Commito
Visiting Artists: Trudy Bensen & Elbert Joseph Perez
Non-credit Tuition Option - $1,250
Undergraduate and Graduate Credit: Undergraduate (3 credits); Graduate (3-4 credits). Standard tuition rates apply. More info available on admissions page.
Resident Faculty
Gianna Commito earned a B.F.A. from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. She paints with casein on marble dust or clay ground to reflect her interest in architecture, building materials, and by extension a continuing exploration of public versus private space and the development and collapse of the built environment. She has been invited to participate in numerous exhibitions across the country and is represented by Rachel Uffner Gallery in New York City, Abattoir in Cleveland, and Marrow Gallery in San Francisco. Her work has been recognized in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Art Papers, ArtForum.com, Wallpaper, and Art in America. Commito has received two Ohio Arts Council grants, a Pollack Krasner grant, the Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artists, and the Wayne P. Lawson acquisition award from the Columbus Museum of Art. Her work was featured in the inaugural edition of the FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in Cleveland, OH, and is placed in prominent collections such as the Akron Art Museum, Columbus Art Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, and the Progressive Art Collection.
Visiting Artist: Trudy Bensen
Trudy Benson (b. 1985 in Richmond, VA) received her M.F.A. from the Pratt Institute and her B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her paintings "explore painterly layering as both image and process, probing how visual hierarchies are constructed and perceived. Her compositions reference systems of organization, including grids, networks, and sequences."
She has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria; Weber Fine Art, Greenwich, CT; SUNNY, New York, NY; Massif Central, Brussels, Belgium; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; and Ceysson & B茅n茅ti猫re, Lyon, France.
Her work has been included in recent group exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Louis Buhl & Co., Detroit, MI; Krinzinger Schottenfeld, Vienna, Austria; Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, NY; m.simons, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; and Gaa Projects, Cologne, Germany.
Benson鈥檚 work may be found in the collections of the A茂shti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, New York, NY; Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom; Schwartz Art Collection, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA; and the Susan and Michael Hort Collection, New York, NY.
The artist lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY.
Visiting Artist: Elbert Joseph Perez
Elbert Joseph Perez (b. 1991, Brooklyn, NY) lives and works in Hudson, NY. He is a self-taught painter informed by the diagnostic problem-solving that takes place while working in his father鈥檚 auto garage. Perez鈥檚 oil paintings are characterized by a generous vulnerability and often develop from difficult emotional spaces. Drawing from a personal vernacular which includes animals with symbolic significance, objects like tools and porcelain figurines, and references from art history, philosophy and literature, Perez creates allegorical narratives that reflect on the fragility and strength of the human psyche. Recent solo exhibitions include "To Hell With The Gander" at Chozick Family Art Gallery, New York, NY (2025); "Just Living the Dream," Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY (2021); "From What I Remember," Field Projects, New York, NY (2022); and "The Enemy of My Enemy," Jupiter Contemporary, Miami, FL (2022). In 2025 he released his first monograph titled "Barking at the Moon," published by Family Books. Additionally, Perez has exhibited at venues including Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA; Eyes Never Sleep, New York, NY; Mrs. Gallery, New York, NY; Embajada, San Juan, PR; Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY; Kimberly Klark, Queens, NY; and Babayaga Gallery, Hudson, NY.