As part of its ongoing lecture series, the Art Gallery sponsored Painter Jennifer Benn in an ArtBreak slide lecture.
Mrs. Benn showed work from her high school days up to her most recent work. For her bachelor's thesis, Benn drew upon her semester in Florence, Italy, to demonstrate the epic size and magnitude of the classical architecture.
"I wanted people to feel what I felt," she said, looking at the architecture. Benn remembered Florence as "a wild adventure for me, and that's what my work was remembering."
One piece of advice Benn reiterated was undergraduate travel. The program abroad in Florence "totally changed my life." During her semester, Benn frequently studied the work of German impressionists. "I think German impressionists worked well with the crumbling architecture.
Another major influence for Benn is Islamic art and geometry.
"Islamic art history forbade art, so geometric cubes were covered by creative vines," Benn explained. "I really like the idea of chaos and order together."
Benn's current work centers on how technology and computers affect the world.
"I try to reflect what I see going on in the world," Benn said. "The big change in the world from my perspective is the influx of computers."
Benn set out to create the computer as an icon similar to Andy Warhol's Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.
"My work is a unifying of art and machine, science and art," said Benn.
Having taken a class at UNH, worked for a computer magazine as a summer job, even marrying a computer engineer, Benn is able to blend "computer power and human reason" in her work. She has recreated some of the "redundancy of computers - something so complicated to do something so simple."
A noticeable mark of Benn's work is the scale of the paintings.
"I like the viewer to be overwhelmed by the painting," said Benn. "I want viewers to stand in front of it and be engulfed."
On average her paintings are six feet by four feet. Benn also sticks to oil paint.
"It's the material I know," said Benn. "It allows me to work and resolve issues. It allows me to work in this scale."
Benn spoke on how a painting starts as a sketch and gradually becomes a large-scale painting. Hearing her describe the process pleased some in the crowd.
"I was excited to hear her speak," art history major Cassandra Graham said. "Excited to hear her techniques."
Art major Katey Austin was excited to hear any advice Benn could give.
"She's an accomplished artist," said Graham, "and I would like to know how she got there and any advice she has to give, I'd love to hear."
Aside from her semester in Florence, Benn had a residency in Ireland. In a painting from her time in Ireland, Benn pointed out where some of the work began to be layered, two paintings in one. She also saw a connection to a color pencil drawing from her Hollis high school years. In a picture of a broken tricycle, "I see a relation to my current art - broken technology."
Benn is a New Hampshire native and a 1990 UNH graduate. She received her BFA in painting from UNH and her MFA in painting from Syracuse University in New York. Her work has been featured in one-,two-, and group exhibitions. Most recently her painting, U.N. Finished Aluminum Phantom F4, is a recipient of Friel Award for Originality and is currently on display in the New Hampshire Art Association 59th Annual Exhibit in the Art Gallery in the PCAC.
She mentioned how different her undergraduate days before the time of personal computers and ATMS.
"Life is so much easier, but is it better? I don't know. I like to put the human hand back in computer work."
Be the first to comment on this article!