Artist: Matthew Benedict
Exhibition title: Manifestations
Venue: Alexander and Bonin, New York, US
Date: January 22 – March 13, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Alexander and Bonin, New York
Alexander and Bonin is pleased to present Manifestations, an exhibition of paintings by Matthew Benedict. The exhibition includes works that Benedict has made throughout his 30-year career, providing an opportunity to see significant works seldom on view to the public.
Painted in gouache on wood or paper, Benedict employs trompe l’oeil framing, illustration, and decorative arts conventions in his portraits, seascapes, and still lives. Benedict’s fascinations with systems of belief ranging from the biblical to the occult are embedded in the work as are literary references and contemporary allusions. The artist’s paintings relay archetypal or mythological narratives, deliberately pulling parables from the ancient past into the present. Benedict grew up in New England, which is reflected in the maritime themes and legends that are prominent in his work, though the mythologies are often conflated with modern imagery and staged recreations that sometimes include evidence of their own artifice.
The earliest works in the exhibition are San Lorenzo of Rome and Saint Joan of Arc, the first of which was exhibited in the windows of the Grey Art Gallery in 1993. Depicted in near life-size scale on large sheets of paper, Benedict’s interpretations of Catholic saints are integrated into his work as modernized bearers of symbols of the transcendental. Initially shown in a large survey exhibition of Benedict’s work at the Von der Heydt-Museum/Kunsthalle Barmen in 2008, The Black Borsalino displays a collection of objects, a wand, two coins, three swords, and a seven of hearts, all motifs which indicate the omnipresence of magic and transformation in Benedict’s work. Also included are paintings from a 2008 cycle of works inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s paintings of the Isle of the Dead, which draw from Benedict’s experiences visiting two real-life “Isles of the Dead”, Isola San Michele, the walled, gothic, cemetery-island of Venice, and New York City’s little-known Hart Island, located just off of City Island in the Bronx.
Matthew Benedict (b. 1968, Rockville, Connecticut) studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the New School for Social Research, New York. Benedict has had several exhibitions of his paintings and sculptures at Alexander and Bonin, New York and Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich. In 2008, a large survey exhibition of Benedict’s work was presented at the Von der Heydt-Museum/Kunsthalle Barmen, Wuppertal, accompanied by “The Mage’s Pantry,” a monograph published by Hatje Cantz. He was in residence at the Versailles /Giverny Foundation in 2011 and had solo exhibitions at Galeria Álvaro Alcázar, Madrid (2008 and 2011) as well as Stene Projects, Stockholm (2013 and 2016). Benedict’s works are included in the permanent collections of the FRAC de Picardie, Amiens; Dallas Museum of Art; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the NASA Art Program, Washington, DC.
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, Manifestations, 2021, exhibition view, Alexander and Bonin, New York
Matthew Benedict, The Black Borsalino, 2001, gouache and Damar on wood, 36 x 48 in/91.5 x 122 cm
Matthew Benedict, Moon and Tides (The Eternal Subject), 2002, gouache on wood, 60 x 84 in/152.4 x 213.4 cm
Matthew Benedict, The Sea Cook (Cook and Crew of the U.S.S Monitor), 2017, gouache on wood, 48 x 59 7/8 in/122 x 152 cm
Matthew Benedict, Head of John Mayo, 2007, gouache and pencil on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 1/2 in/ 64.5 x 49.5 cm
Matthew Benedict, Study for the “The Sea Cook”, 2016, gouache on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8 in/64.8 x 49.8 cm
Matthew Benedict, Sailor Smoking (Study for “The Sea Cook”), 2016, gouache on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8 in/64.8 x 49.8 cm
Matthew Benedict, Launch, 1917, 2016, gouache on paper, 27 1/2 x 39 1/4 in/70 x 100 cm
Matthew Benedict, Study of a Lemon Tree at Twilight, 2019, gouache on paper, 19 1/2 x 12 3/4 in/49.5 x 32.4 cm
Matthew Benedict, Dusk at the Church of the Scarab, 2011, gouache on paper, 25 ½ x 19 ½ in/65 x 49.5 cm
Matthew Benedict, Isle of the Dead, Venice (Isola di San Michele, Venice), 2008, gouache on wood, 36 x 48 in/ 91 x 122 cm
Matthew Benedict, Isle of the Dead, New York (Hart Island, The Bronx), 2008, gouache on wood, 36 x 48 in/ 91 x 122 cm
Matthew Benedict, Empyrean Soldiers at the Drive-in Movie, 2010, gouache on wood, 48 x 72 in/122 x 183 cm
Matthew Benedict, Bad Charles, 2001, gouache and wax varnish on wood, 71½ x 48 in/182 x 122 cm
Matthew Benedict, San Lorenzo of Rome, 1993, gouache on paper, 96 x 60 in./243.8 x 152.4 cm
Matthew Benedict, Saint Joan of Arc, 1997-1998, gouache on paper, 96 x 60 in/244 x 152.5 cm
Matthew Benedict, Ghost (Happy New Year. Normandy, 1914), 2011, gouache and varnish on wood, 72 x 48 in/183 x 122 cm
