Ben Gould (’15 Painting)
Interdisciplinary artist Ben Gould (‘15 Painting) has built a career rooted in resilience, experimentation, and self-discovery, transforming personal challenges into powerful performance and sculptural work.
Gould's practice merges sculpture, performance, sound, and lived experience, centered on health, disability, and reckoning with an unstable body, exploring themes of care and material ecology. His work challenges audiences to reconsider assumptions about ability, wellness, and control, while demonstrating how creativity can emerge from adversity.
Following diagnoses of Tourette syndrome and thyroid cancer, his interdisciplinary work became guided by a deep investment in the body, with his neurological condition providing a choreographic and ideological framework for projects like performance, sculpture, and film. Ultimately, his work is a search for understanding and growth, creating a space for fantasy and freedom in opposition to physical limitations and societal norms.
Gould recently announced that he will be represented by Pangée, a contemporary art gallery in Montréal, QC, and will present his first solo exhibition at Pangée in Summer 2026. He also has been granted a residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and will be part of the first cohort of 2026 Arts/Industry Residents. Gould will work at the Kohler factory, using industrial processes to create innovative works in a dynamic, resource-rich environment.
These recent successes show that Gould’s challenging, varied art has earned important professional attention. The roots of this resilient artistic voice were first established during his formative years at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Art From Experience
From his earliest days at the Kansas City Art Institute, Gould approached art as both a physical and emotional process. As a Painting major, he learned to embrace risk, experimentation, and independence. The freedom he experienced in the Foundation program and upper-level studios encouraged him to explore beyond traditional media, laying the groundwork for a practice that would later merge sculpture, movement, sound, and performance.
During his time at KCAI, Gould’s development of Tourette’s increasingly shaped his daily experience and creative process, leading him to view his intensifying physical tics and spasms as a central artistic tool rather than a limitation. The resulting medical mandates, which prohibited him from using power tools or lifting over 10 pounds for years, ultimately caused the concept of externally-imposed limitations to become a significant force in his artwork.
These restrictions pushed Gould toward performance as a necessary and expressive outlet. What began as a response to physical limitation became a defining feature of his artistic voice. He learned to channel involuntary movement into intentional choreography, transforming raw energy into structured, meaningful work.
“I’m not just uninhibitedly twitching for you,” Gould explains. “I’m using that energy… and specifically trying to give it shape. So I’m using that unbridled raw power as the fuel for the fire.”
“I’m not just uninhibitedly twitching for you, I’m using that energy… and specifically trying to give it shape. So I’m using that unbridled raw power as the fuel for the fire.”
New Realities, New Focus
After graduating, Gould continued developing his interdisciplinary practice alongside a professional career in higher education working at the Columbia University School of the Arts where he manages sculpture facilities and teaches workshops. In the midst of this growing career, Gould was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, requiring multiple surgeries and forcing him to confront new physical realities. The nerve damage from these procedures temporarily left him uncertain about regaining full use of his left arm, prompting him to rethink his relationship with his body.
“In my work, I’ve done a lot with control and the loss of control.” Gould said. “Now I’m also really looking closer at what the body is capable of doing in a state of considerable unwellness or weakness. Real weakness, you know?”
This experience deepened Gould’s interest in how medicine, society, and institutions define “normal” bodies. His performances began engaging more directly with ideas of illness, recovery, and visibility.
The Waiting Room
In Fall 2025, Gould returned to KCAI as the Featured Artist during Alumni Weekend for his first major performance since his cancer treatment with The Waiting Room. The work marked a significant personal and professional milestone, bringing him back to the campus where his artistic identity first took shape.
The performance incorporated medical instruments, live music, and physically demanding choreography, reflecting both the vulnerability and strength of a body in recovery. Accompanied by cellist Arthur Gould (‘71 Ceramics), his father, and drummer Michael Gould, his cousin, the piece unfolded as a meditation on waiting, uncertainty, and care.
“It’s sort of like sustained limbo,” Gould says. “An unending denial of gratification, a suspension of care.”
Though the performance is not explicitly about cancer, The Waiting Room was deeply informed by his experience of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. It represented a moment of reclaiming agency over a body that had been shaped by illness and medical intervention.
Arthur Gould, who has witnessed his son’s artistic evolution for years, describes the emotional intensity of these performances: “They are all cathartic, emotional, and very intense…Over time, even though I’m still emotionally hooked every time, I find them very compelling.”
Returning to KCAI for this performance also reaffirmed Gould’s connection to the institution that helped form his creative foundation. He credits the school’s open, exploratory culture with giving him permission to pursue unconventional paths.
Through perseverance, experimentation, and self-trust, Gould’s career stands as a testament to the power of creative resilience and the lasting impact of his artistic foundation.