Myles Bennett American, b. 1983

Myles Bennett (b. 1983 Nashville, TN) is a Brooklyn-based artist whose practice includes painting, drawing, and sculpture. A graduate in Architecture from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), his visual language explores the intersection of architectural drawings, 18th century landscape paintings, and the organized space of woven and raw canvas. His focus on the personal scale of construction and materiality has evolved into an exploration of the intersection between gesture and the inherent properties of surface. For centuries, the canvas has been stretched, primed, and conditioned for the creation of a multitude of genres. It has been left bare, painted all white, painted all black, gridded with graphite, and has represented what we understand to be a picture plane. Bennett’s work does not subvert this, but enters into the conversation of the picture plane with an open mind and an eye for innovation.

His explorative process has led to figurative paintings, sculpture, photography, minimalist/maximalist drawings, and various forms of abstraction that combine these diverse mediums. His artistic practice delves into what lies within and underneath this historic material. Whether the process lends itself to drawing lines guided by the canvas grain, inking into the cotton fibers, or the deconstruction of the canvas, all approaches seek to fuse the artist’s curiosities of the surface. His recent work involves the extraction of the canvas’s warp, leaving the weft behind. This subtractive process has led to him rethink how the canvas holds color and shape. His innovative processes of deconstruction span from pictures that appear as paintings to canvases that appear as sculptures and textiles. He is continually pushing the boundaries of the traditional picture plane and inturn, finding new ways to express his visual language.

Living and working in Brooklyn, NY, Myles has an extensive exhibition history with solo and group shows in the US and Europe. His most recent exhibitions include showings at Rutger Brandt (Amsterdam), Lafontsee Gallery (Grand Rapids), Espositivo (Madrid), Tangerine (Nashville), Victori.Mo (New York), Pamela Walsh (Palo Alto, CA), Art Market (San Francisco) and a solo exhibition at Scope Art (Miami).