Benny Fountain was born in Moscow, Idaho, at the center of a rich agricultural region known as the Palouse. He received his BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR in 2005, and MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA in 2008, during which time he also studied in Rome, Italy. Fountain is currently the Associate Professor of Painting at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. Prior to this Fountain taught at Baylor University in Waco, TX between 2013 to 2023.
Fountain is a recipient of a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship and a Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency. His work has been featured in numerous national and international exhibitions such as the Royal Scottish Academy of Art, where he was awarded the Meyer Oppenheim prize; The Drawing Center, The Bowery, and First Street Gallery in New York, NY; and the Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC. His work is held in the permanent collection of the Halle Ford Museum of Art at Willamette university.
In 2014, Benny conducted on-site composition and color studies of Piero della Francesca’s work in Arezzo and Sansepolcro, Italy. This project reflects a core element of his painting philosophy—that the ability to see for oneself is dependent on the vision granted by others.
Fountain spends his summers in Idaho painting in the landscape where he has a rustic studio perched on a butte of borrowed farmland.