Benjamin Von Wong is a multidisciplinary visual artist and activist who uses recycled and reclaimed materials to create striking work around the intersection of humanity's biggest issues - from climate change to social justice.
Leading from the principle that the world's largest issues are intertwined, Von Wong endeavors to co-create work with communities to help build more resilient ecosystems. His work often invites organizations and citizens to directly participate in the artistic process.
His art has been viewed and shared hundreds of millions of times worldwide and has earned a reputation for sparking conversation.
He has exhibited at Art Basel, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the UN Environmental Assembly, among others. He has also led social campaigns with corporations like Nike and Dell, and even holds a Guinness World Record for the most straws collected to build an installation - 168,000.
Along the way, he's been featured on a documentary narrated by Ryan Reynolds and built a 40 foot tall installation that was the centerpiece at the United Nations in Nairobi when the Global Plastics Resolution was successfully signed.
Von Wong also contributes as a speaker and consultant, helping organizations strategize creative campaigns that will spur the public into inspired action. From the stage, he has spoken at TEDx, SXSW, Dell World, and more on his creative process, campaign strategies for organizations, and how to create participatory work that moves the world forward.
From the outset, Von Wong builds marketability into the planning phase of each project or installation. He thinks about the aspects of a project that gain people's attention and keep it, allowing organizations to leverage that attention to create true community impact. When Tomra wanted to create new energy around recycling, he created an installation featuring a mermaid drowning in a sea of 10,000 plastic bottles, raising tens of thousands of dollars for waste pickers.
When Nexus Summit wanted to highlight the problem of fashion waste, he helped design and build The World's Tallest Closet, to represent the number of clothes a Western consumer accumulates over a single lifetime, compelling thousands of people to shed their excess outfits and commit to sustainability.
He has created such campaigns for Dell, Greenpeace, Starbucks and the Government of Canada, and many more -- raising millions of dollars and moving millions of hearts along the way. He is meticulous about documenting his process -- an aspect of his work he also helped pioneer -- to bring viewers along for the ride and get stakeholders worldwide invested in a project's success and excited by his infectious energy.
