Lei Benben: Temple of Flow: a poco open studio series
a poco art collective launches its new open studio series with Temple of Flow, an immersive one-evening presentation by Los Angeles-based artist Lei Benben. The series reimagines the artist’s own studio as both exhibition space and living environment, a site where creation, ritual, and community converge.
Each edition of the a poco open studio series transforms an artist’s workspace into a momentary exhibition. Visitors are invited to step inside the intimate process of art-making while encountering newly finished works in situ. Combining the spontaneity of a studio visit with the energy of an opening, these evenings offer a direct dialogue between artist, curator, art lovers and collectors.
In Temple of Flow, Lei Benben continues her exploration of transformation, ritual, and the human body as vessel. Working with performance, the body, paint, scent, and organic materials, her practice draws from Zen philosophies and elemental cycles of earth and water. For this presentation, Ann Shi guides the spatial and curatorial layout, revealing the fluid relationship between process and offering— the studio as temple.
Schedule
5–6pm: Tea ceremony (RSVP only)
7–8pm: Video art screening
About the Series
a poco open studio series is a new initiative by a poco art collective, transforming artists’ studios into temporary exhibition spaces for one-night presentations. Each installment centers an artist’s ongoing body of work, accompanied by a curatorial text and installation direction by Ann Shi. The series celebrates intimacy, process, and the art of hosting and becoming, redefining exhibition as a social and spiritual gathering.
About the Artist
Lei Benben (b. 1977, Jiangxi, China) is an interdisciplinary artist working across video, performance, installation, painting, and participatory ritual. Trained in dance choreography at the China Academy of Dance Arts and later in photography at the Beijing Film Academy, she began her career in movement before expanding into moving-image and embodied practices.
Her work moves fluidly between performance, video diaries, and somatic workshops, exploring breath, gesture, and elemental materials as thresholds between human and non-human worlds. Rooted in Taoist and Zen philosophy, Lei’s lyrical visual language evokes the qi of landscapes and the sensory poetics of climate, transforming art-making into a meditative and communal act.
Notable presentations include MISTY – Lahem X Lei Benben (M’s Room, Beijing, 2024), No Brainstorming (M’s Room, 2017), Facing the Shadow (C-Space, Hangzhou, 2016), The Gift (Now Gallery, 2015), Tribute to Isadora Duncan (East Gallery, 2014), and Tilting Coastline (Boers-Li Gallery, 2011). Group exhibitions include Three Shadows Photography Award Finalists (Beijing, 2012), Chinese Contemporary Art Yearbook exhibitions (Minsheng Art Museum, 2011 & 2016), Lianzhou International Photo Festival (2010), and Chinese Contemporary Photography (DNJ Gallery, Los Angeles, 2008). Workshops and recent projects include The Art of Wordlessness: Zen Tea & Meditative Movement (Venice, 2025) and Zen Dance and Painting Workshop: The Beauty of Awareness (San Gabriel, 2025).