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An Ongoing Fundraising Exhibit at the TCC Gallery!
The gift of a lifetime
The Life and Work of Sculptor Al Bensusen (1930-2024)
It’s a story that’s as unique as it is beautiful. The TCC Gallery will be exhibiting samplings of the extraordinary work of the late New York artist, Albert “Al” Bensusen now and throughout 2026. It will showcase a rotating selection of 50 remarkable figurative terracotta sculptures, 3 contemporary stone sculptures, a handful of small bronzes, and more as part of a benefit for the non-profit Taos Ceramics Center (TCC) to help raise funding for the building of a dedicated educational facility on our existing campus. The work to be shown represents only a fraction of the more than 1100 figurative pieces and 20 stone works that have been donated to the TCC by his estate.
Remarkably, in all the years that Bensusen worked in clay and stone, he never sought to show his work. Only a handful of close friends and family members ever knew what he was doing for decades behind closed doors in his Bronx studio.
Bensusen passed away in April of 2024 at the age of 94. His career of 40 years was as an illustrator/art director for NYC's top ad agencies, including McCann Erickson and Benton and Bowles until retiring in the mid 90’s. Upon leaving advertising, he pursued what was to become his real passion, sculpture. He attended the Art Students League of New York for years and years to utilize the hundreds of live models that his 1100+ ceramic sculptures were inspired by. Each clay figure is gestural but considerably detailed and emotionally charged because of his insistence in getting to know every model to understand who they were. As he finished each piece, he would place it on shelving that he had erected in his studio. While he continued his work in clay, he also continued stone carving that he had been doing since the 1960's.
Examples of the figurative work currently on exhibit. Each piece is emotionally rich, engagingly gestural, yet unrefined by design.
Al's son, Samuel, along with Al’s second wife and Sam’s mother, Kitty, approached the TCC in the summer of 2024 to share with us what Al had left behind and his desire that it be donated to support art education. Al was also a life-long NPR listener with a radio in his studio and every room in his home. As a result, a portion of the sale proceeds will also go to public radio.
Our full gallery exhibit and tribute to Al Bensusen, "The gift of a lifetime", was on view from August 2 thru September 21, 2025. Today, the exhibit has been scaled down but will be ongoing, now through 2026, at the TCC Gallery in Taos, NM. Also, please enjoy an 11-minute biographical video, by British videographers Harry and Fred Borden, about Bensusen that was shot ten years prior to his passing when he was 84, and final-edited upon Al's passing. The video will give you a look into this man's soul as well as a glimpse of some of the work, clay and stone, that we are exhibiting: Click here: Just Make Something
TCC Gallery Hours
Wednesday thru Saturday: 10AM to 5PM
Sunday: Noon to 4pm
CLOSED Monday & Tuesday
114 Este Es Road, Taos, NM
575-758-2580