Zoe Benbow

HAYHILLGALLERY

A selection of original paintings

Z O E B E N B O W By

Claudie Bastide

www.hayhill.com E: kevin@hayhill.com

T: +44(0) 207 4392299

Hay Hill Gallery 5a Cork Street Mayfair London

Artist’s Statement It’s not possible to have developed thought without a language of some kind and in my painting I use the ‘syntax’ of painting to develop ideas and construct images which are not actually pre-determined.

My large-scale canvases in oil, often highly colourful, are based in an abstract geological landscape developed from direct experience in remote environments. I draw in landscape as a way of mapping and exploring and the results have the potential to question how we see our world and the nature of our relationship to it.

Whilst the paintings are evolved from these drawings made in situ - through the process of making and analysis they become as much a meditation on a geology of association and memory as of an actual place.

The paintings move freely between abstraction and reference, self-containment and randomness, weaving a complex aesthetic language, which eventually crystallises in a highly resolved picture plane. Here, no traditional perspective is employed and the image - tightly balanced at a point of maximum tension - remains in continuous flux.

When looking at the paintings things aren’t always as they first appear - what we perceive as foreground can rotate to background and vice-versa. In the shifting nature of the image our spatial position as observer is questioned. By surrounding and fusing the audience within the subject the painting throws the viewer headlong into the landscape while challenging any pre-conceived sense of separateness from the environment.

Zoe Benbow

Insert art info Forest Path oil on canvas 92 x 137 cm , 2010

Insert art info Forest Walk oil on canvas 92 x 137 cm , 2010

Insert art info Precipice oil on canvas 92 x 132 cm , 2010

Red Vale oil on canvas 92 x 132 cm , 2009

Aymer Cave oil on canvas 51 x 51 cm , 2009

Cliff Walk oil on canvas 51 x 51 cm , 2009

Biography Main exhibitions Recent Activities • 2010 ‘WAYFARER’ Solo exhibition at Hammerson London W1 • 2009 Solo shows in Barcelona and ANPQ Foundation , South of France.

• 2008 Research in Bangalore, India, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology One Person Exhibitions • 2006 Dartington College of Art Gallery • 2006‘TECTONIC’ Cafe Gallery Projects, Southwark Park, London (Arts Council Space) • 2005 Consell de Cent, Barcelona • 2003 New Work, Wenlock Basin • 1997 Christopher Hull Gallery London • 1995 Christopher Hull • 1991 Berkeley Square Gallery (solo); • 1991 Templeton College, Oxford (solo) Selected Group Exhibitions • 2007 Artfutures, Contemporary Art Society , Bloomberg Space, London • 2004 Wenlock Basin , London N1 (self curated group show) • 2003 Mall Galleries , London –two person • 2002 Stephen Lacey Gallery, London • 2001 Mall Galleries -2 person • 1996 Standpoint Gallery, London • 1995 Delfina , London -two person • 1993 Salama Caro Gallery, London; • Factual Nonsense, London • 1992 Galerie G, Madrid; • The Discerning Eye, London

Selected Collections • The Royal Palace of Jordan, HRH The Prince of Wales, British Telecom, Arthur Andersen, Unilever PLC, Manchester City Art Gallery, BC Partners.

• Public Art Currently on Display • Painted columns underneath Docklands Light Railway London E1, • Mural, Swimming Pool, Zurich, • Year of the Artist Project, mural for medical centre Residencies • 2008 Artic Circle –Finland • 2006 Dartington College of Art • 2002 Research, Atholl Estate, Central Highlands, Scotland • 2000, Cill Rialaig, Ballinskelligs, Ireland • 1996 Binz 39, Scuol-Nairs, Switzerland • 1991 Delfina Studios, Andalucia, Spain • 1989 Delfina Studios London, one year residency Awards • 2006 ‘Grants for the arts’ award. Arts Council England • 2001 Year of the Artist Award, Southern Arts, • Lecturing and Workshops • 2008 Srishti School of Art, Design and technology. Ways of Seeing Drawing Course • 2005 Royal College of Art –Tutor Drawing Module , Industrial Design Engineering • 1994 Prem Dan Garden School for Street Children, Bombay, India (artist workshops) • 1989,1992 Project leader, Fine Art , City and Guilds School of Art, London Publications • 2006 Exhibition essay ‘In a Landscope’ by Kodwo Eshun, Cafe Gallery Projects • 2004 Private Views’ Artists Working Today author Judith Palmer, pub. Serpents Tail • 2000: No FuN without U (on Factual Nonsense) Jeremy Cooper, pub. Ellipsis

Hay Hill Gallery 5a Cork Street Mayfair London www.hayhill.com E: info@hayhill.com T: +44 (0) 207 439 1001