Shannon Benine | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Shannon Benine

Image
A headshot of Shannon Benine.

  • Faculty

Title
Department Chair
Chair of Media Arts
Education
MFA, University of Illinois
BFA, University of Washington
Email Address

Shannon Benine (she/they)
MFA, University of Illinois at Chicago
BFA/BA, University of Washington, Seattle

Shannon Benine is a North American artist, curator, and educator who joined the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in the fall of 2025 as Professor and Chair of Media Arts. Their practice interrogates the aesthetics and ethics of documentary techniques to investigate how mechanisms support marginalized communities against hegemonic systems of power. Informed by feminist art theory and their lived experience as a queer and gender-fluid artist, Benine integrates photography, video, and archival materials into multimedia installations that strengthen communal agency.

Benine has spent over twenty years teaching within public and private institutions including UIC, SAIC, CCAD, and SSU. Prior to their move to Minneapolis, they served as a tenured Associate Professor and Chair of Photography at ULV. Their global practice includes a forthcoming exhibition at the Photo Vogue Festival 2026 in Milan, Italy. Benine’s work is held in numerous permanent collections, including the National Centre of Contemporary Art in Moscow, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and the Kalaupapa National Historic Museum in Hawai’i.