Emma Bennett To Open At Charlie Smith London

Emma Bennett

CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Emma Bennett with her third one person show at the gallery. For this exhibition Bennett has created an exquisite set of intimate oil paintings on oak panels. Combining appropriated still life elements with beds, fire and landscapes; this is a significantly personalised series. Exploring the fleeting nature of experience and encounters, Bennett’s paintings are resonant and nostalgic. They also refer to the incomplete, fragmented nature of memory and thought.

‘My recent paintings, like memories, contain small fragments of imagery – these are focused details surrounded by darkness and ambiguity. The imagery of the paintings locates memories in specific places and, as with memories, there are sharply focused details as well as inaccuracies and things that one can’t quite recall.’

This fragmented or failed recollection serves to blur the boundaries of reality and imagination, and introduces notions of desire, absence and loss. The illogicality of apparently disparate figurative elements suggests ambiguities in time and space, whilst the intangible nature of the subjects represented intonate dream and flux. We are eluded by the transient nature of smoke, fire and water, and reminded of the impermanence of the corporeal.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2015: Flora (curated by Alex Boyd Jones), Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown; Die English Kommen! – New Painting from London (curated by Zavier Ellis), Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt; 2014, 100 Painters of Tomorrow, Beers Contemporary, London; Saatchi’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson), B1, Victoria House, London; Still Life: All Coherence Gone? (curated by Frances Woodley), BayArt Gallery, Cardiff; Fleursdumal (curated by Dolly Thompsett), Lion and Lamb Gallery, London; 2013: Emma Bennett (Solo), Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; 2012: And, Afterwards (Solo), CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London; Kalliphilia , Vegas Gallery, London; East Wing X: Courtauld Institute, London; 2011: Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations B1, Victoria House, London and The Future Can Wait (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson); Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith), Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipėda; The Future Can Wait presents: Polemically Small, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance (curated by Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith, Max Presneill & Simon Rumley); 2010: Death & Co (Solo), CHARLIE SMITH london, London; New British Painting, Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki; 2006: John Moores 24 / Liverpool Biennale, Walker Gallery, Liverpool; 2002: Emma Bennett: New Paintings (Solo), Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London; 2001: A Month in the Garden, The Museum of Garden History, London; 2001: Bittersweet, Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London

COLLECTIONS K & K Kollektion, Monaco; Preiskel & Co, London; David Roberts, London; The Reydan Weiss Collection, Munich; private collections in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

Emma Bennett: Some Small Fires – CHARLIE SMITH LONDON – 26 June to 25 July 2015

Tags

,