Bhen Alan

Bhen Alan (b.1993) was raised in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines. He grew up dancing traditional folk and cultural dances to preserve their culture. He immigrated to Toronto, Canada when he was 17 years old before settling in the United States.
 
Bhen is a visual artist, dancer and educator. In 2019, he received his BFA in painting at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where he was a full scholar. In the same year, he pursued a Business Accelerator Certificate from the Entrepreneurship For-All in South Coast Massachusetts. He earned his MFA in Painting and Certificate in Collegiate Teaching in Art and Design at RISD and was a US Fulbright scholar from 2022–23 in the Philippines, where he researched and worked alongside master weavers of Indigenous tribes in 14 different islands.
 
He has exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Praise Shadow Gallery in Brookline, MA; 808 Gallery at Boston University; RISD; Hunter Gallery in Middletown, RI; EIK Gallery at Yale University; Culture Lab LIC in New York; the Providence [RI]. Public Art Library; St. Botolph Club Foundation in Boston; John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto, Canada; Shockboxx Gallery in California; Providence Art Club; Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown, MA; the New Bedford National Historical Park and many more. He organized the first Filipino Heritage Festival during the 2022 PVD Fest in Providence.
 
Bhen has received awards such as the Emerging Artist Award and Mary Shannon Award for Public Art at St. Botolph Club Foundation, Boston, MA; the Emerging Artist Award from Real Arts; and a 2021–22 RISD Graduate Commons Grant.