Artist Spotlight - Jenny Bennett — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Feb 2

Feb 2 Artist Spotlight - Jenny Bennett

Biography

Jenny Bennett, was born McLellan, in 1950, in Hastings, New Zealand. She graduated M.A.Hons [Anthropology]. As a young person she was discouraged from following her passion for art and was steered in an academic direction. After the birth of her first child she started to paint.

Paisley Beyond Triptych. 2024 Oil on canvas. 183 x 91cm.

She also experimented with a number of media attending summer schools and various classes. These included clay sculpture, puppetry, pastel drawing, mask making and performance, flax weaving, print making; lithography etching.

Hot Flotsam. 2024. Oil on canvas. 367cm x 150cm

Bennett has won various art awards and commissions and served on arts boards, judging panels and mentoring programmes. She travelled to Tuscany in 2009 and 2011 and in 2013 was guest artist in the inaugural Izmir Biennale of Art, Turkey. Her work was in a group show 'Power of Perception held at Raw Gallery NYC. She continues to paint and exhibits nationally and internationally.

All in the Round. 2019. Oil on Board. 90cm diameter.

Artist Statement

After several years of exploring various themes, mainly landscapes, it was exciting to begin a new series of exploring flora, involving new colours and abstraction. The recent Paisley series with its flowing organic imagery developed naturally from the floral series and the latest “Hot Flotsam”, a large work reflects an increasing emphasis on abstraction and an acknowledgement of global warming and pollution.

Primavera triptych. 2017. Oil on canvas. Each panel 90cm x90cm.

The Paisley series also morphed into a search for personal iconography; motifs,themes and their origins. Recent discoveries about haploid groups, DNA and mitochondrial DNA along with my own genealogical research, have linked art and anthroplogy and ancestry.

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