Background
Benjamin Matthew Victor was born in 1979 in Taft, California. He grew up in Bakersfield.
Benjamin Matthew Victor was born in 1979 in Taft, California. He grew up in Bakersfield.
He attended Northern State University in South Dakota, studying art and sculpture.
He is best known for his sculpture of Sarah Winnemucca, Paiute activist in Nevada, which her home state installed in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol in 2005. At age 26, he became the youngest artist to have a work in the National Statuary Hall. After completing high school, he lived in for a time in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Victor’s first work to receive attention was a life-size statue of the biblical character Samson, sculpted when the artist was a sophomore art major at Northern State University.
The piece earned Victor a scholarship "in recognition of his aesthetic and conceptual integrity" from the prestigious National Sculpture Society in New York City. At age 23, Victor was commissioned to produce his proposal of a trio of soldiers for the Aberdeen Regional Airport War Memorial in South Dakota.
Victor has completed numerous commissions from city, institutions and non-profits for public art works throughout the West and upper Midwest, often to commemorate individuals or groups. He was commissioned by the state of Nevada to make sculptures of Sarah Winnemucca, a 19th-century Paiute activist, one for installation in 2005 at its capital and one to be installed as one of Nevada"s official works in the United States Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol Building, Washington, District of Columbia At age 26, Victor was the youngest sculptor to have a work installed at the hall.
Notable works.