Mark Bennett
I am currently employed as an independent cabinetmaker, but my initial experience is in boat building and repair, and the aesthetics and romance of wooden boats is deeply ingrained in me. I am never content making square things. I am always drawn to a supple curve.
A large part of my business is building bars and night clubs. I am largely responsible for creating the environment of the venue--we are always striving to create a compelling alternative reality. It is a wonderfully populist art form because not only am I working with my materials and tools, but also I have to understand the attitudes and expectations of the patrons in order to allow them to suspend their daily reality.
Another part of my business is as an art fabricator. I worked as a project manager for Dale Chihuly and fabricated sculpture for Gary Hill, Ginny Ruffner, and a number of other Seattle artists. From that experience, I have come to appreciate what a tough and rigorous business the art business is.
The final piece of the puzzle that has developed my aesthetic and attitudes as a sculptor is my experience as a lighting technician for theater and music. I spent several years working for a mid-sized touring rock band, and for five days every week I had to design, hang, and run a light show in a new venue every night. I have since had a lifelong attraction to that form of creative energy and an acute sensitivity to how light defines our environment.
Making sculpture is, for me, a way to put together the experiences of my life and give them shape. Probably, more fundamentally, it makes me happy.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2013 Anniversary Show, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY
The Air Show, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY
2011 Disaster Relief: A Two-Person Show, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
Quick, Down, and Dirty, Byrdcliffe Art Colony, Woodstock, NY
2010 The Dark Side, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
2009 Group show, J. Damiani Gallery, Hudson, NY
Works on Paper, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
2008 Jennifer Harris & Mark Bennett: Recent Works, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
2007 Recent Works, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
The Body Eclectic, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
2006 CCCA Juried Show, Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY
2005 Encounters with Sculpture, CCCA Artswalk, Hudson, NY
Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Kingston, NY
Recent Works, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
2004 Bennett & Harris: New Sculpture in Wood and Wax, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
CCCA Members Sculpture and Mixed Media, Old Allen Street School, Hudson, NY
2003 Works on Paper, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY
Carnevale, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY