Benjamin Matthew Victor (b. Taft, California, January 16, 1979) is an American sculptor living and working in Boise, Idaho.[1] He is the only living artist to have three works in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. [2] He is currently sculpting his fourth statue for the Statuary Hall, of Daisy Bates. He was only 26 years old when his first statue, Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute activist in Nevada, was dedicated in the Hall in 2005, making him the youngest artist to ever be represented in the Hall.[3][4] In 2014, his sculpture of Norman Borlaug, "the father of the Green Revolution," was dedicated in the National Statuary Hall[5] and in 2019, his statue of Chief Standing Bear, a Native American rights leader, was dedicated in the National Statuary Hall making him the only living artist to have three sculptures in the Hall.[6]
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 capitol 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, D.C. At age 26, Victor was the youngest sculptor to have a work installed at the hall.
Monument to Norman Borlaug. Bronze, over life-size, 2014. National Statuary Hall, Washington, DC.
In 2016, Judi M. gaiashkibos executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs contacted Victor about creating a statue of Standing Bear (Ponca) for the Centennial Mall at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.[8] It was installed in 2017.[9] When gaiashkibos learned of a plan replace the two statues allotted for Nebraska in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D. C., she contacted Victor again to make another sculpture of Standing Bear.[10] The installation of the statue in Statuary Hall was held in 2019, with gaiashkibos's daughter, Katie Brossy in attendance.[10] Using the surplus funds from those raised to erect the Standing Bear statues, gaiashkibos hired Victor in 2021 to sculpt Susan La Flesche Picotte (Omaha), the first Native woman to be licensed as a physician in the US for the Centennial Mall at the university.[11][12]
Notable works
Aberdeen Monument to Firefighters, Aberdeen Fire Department, Station #1, Aberdeen, South Dakota
^Vanderford, Taryn (October 11, 2021). "Picotte Statue Unveiled". 1011 Now. Lincoln, Nebraska: KOLN. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
