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Indepth Arts News:
"Benini: From Earth to the Stars - A Thirty-Year Journey"
2003-03-12 until 2003-04-05
Longview Museum of Fine Arts
Longview, TX,
USA United States of America
Benini, who was born in Italy in 1941, has painted exclusively with acrylics for more than 40 years. His paintings, exhibited in 150 solo shows through the years, group easily into several distinct periods. Renee Hawkins, the Executive Director of the LMFA, who curated the exhibition, toured Benini’s 14,000 sq.ft. Studios Building in the Texas Hill Country – a visit that prompted the idea of encompassing three decades – from the early figurative pieces when Benini lived in Freeport, Grand Bahama through the 20 years he focused on the symbol of the rose in surrealistic and symbolic pieces, continuing into the current work of geometric and lyrical images.
For 15 years now, Benini set aside stretched canvas and square corners to create colorful, seemingly free-floating compositions in sizes from several feet to 40 feet.
The imagery dictates the outer edges and shape of the pieces which are accomplished by stretching canvas over aluminum to create a rigid, flat surface. Then with an almost trompe l'oeil effect, Benini blends acrylics, applying many layers by brush, with a technique that pulls forth the illusions of dimensionality in brilliant colors.
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