Amy Bennett
Open Season
Exhibition Dates: January 7 - February 11
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 7, 3-5 pm
RICHARD HELLER GALLERY
Richard Heller Gallery is pleased to present Amy Bennett: Open Season. This is Bennett's fifth solo exhibition with the gallery.
From the Artist:
“The show presents work that was made in 2019 before pandemic lockdowns prompted a change of course in the studio, alongside newer work created in post-lockdown days. These paintings were made during a time when things were literally open, both before and after a realization of how much about our lives we take for granted. But, as the title also implies, that awareness exists alongside extreme vulnerability. We have been awakened to our collective fragility on both natural and socio-political fronts. These paintings were created while attempting to return to “life as usual” amidst an atmosphere of political chaos, heightened vigilance against an invisible enemy, coping with our bodies’ response to a mysterious sickness and, for a mind-numbing number, the grief of loss. It was also a period marked by an altered sense of home life and a reassessment of relationships and use of time. Hopefully the paintings touch on these themes with a sense of humor and optimism.”
~ Amy Bennett
About the Artist:
Amy Bennett (b. 1977 in Portland, ME) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1999 from the University of Hartford, CT and her Master of Fine Arts in 2002 from the New York Academy of Art.
Solo exhibitions include “Open Season,” Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (forthcoming); “Land of Plenty,” Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden; “Amy Bennett – New Paintings,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Nuclear Family,” Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, VT; “Small Changes Every Day,” Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; “Sore Spots,” Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden; “Heydays,” Permanent Mosaic Installation, 86th Street & 4th Avenue, Brooklyn Subway Station, MTA Arts for Transit, Brooklyn, NY; “Vacationland,” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “At the Lake,” Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; “Buried,” Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden; “Neighbors,” Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; and “Stories,” Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Group exhibitions include “The Spring,” Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden; “We Are Family,” New York Academy of Art, New York, NY; “My Sweet Dopplegänger,” Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; “2020 VISION,” Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY; “2020 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts,” American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY; “Stilla liv/Still Life,” Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden; Richard Heller Gallery at EXPO Chicago; “Downsized: Small-Scale Sculpture by Contemporary Artists,” The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT; “Belief in Giants,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Really?,” Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “Ethics of Depiction: Landscape, Still Life, Human,” Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI; “Water|Bodies” Southampton Art Center, Southampton, NY; “20th Anniversary Show,” Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; “Stirring Still,” LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY; “Time Waits for Us,” Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden; “Faux Life,” Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; and “XS,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.
Bennett is the recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship; American Academy of Arts & Letters Purchase Award; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (Fine Arts); Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant; Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Painting; New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Program 2010/11; New York Foundation for the Arts/Deutsche Bank Fellowship; Smack Mellon Studio Program; Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant; Prince of Wales Scholarship to Normandy; New York Academy of Art Research Fellowship; Felicia C. Miller Award for Artistic Excellence; and the Barbara Podorowsky Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting.
Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; and Art in Embassies, US Department of State.
Amy Bennett lives and works in Cold Spring, NY.