Artist Jason Bennett is exhibiting a series of paintings for a solo exhibition at Popopstudios in Chippingham. Though a prolific painter who has exhibited in various group exhibitions at Popopstudios, this marks Bennett's first solo show with the recently renovated gallery. The work for the exhibition has two distinct formats, a series of mixed media panels and four unusually large acrylic works on paper. The pieces though different in technique and appearance carry a consistant visual tone for the show.
One of the successes of the exhibition is the transormation of the gallery space where some of the angular corners of the gallery have been altered into fluid curves that forces the viewer to engage several pieces by physically moving around them. This, along with several moniters blinking reference images by the artist and a casual interview of Bennett (in lew of a printed artist statement) explaining his working parctice allows the viewer to place the absract paintings into an organic environment that according to Bennett is inspired by the "... continuity of forms in nature". The interview also addresses the title of the exhibition "knots" which seems to be less of a physical analogy and used instead as a metaphor for social or political entanglements. Regardless of its specific allusions there are little entanglements in the work. To the contrary, the paintings offer suprising restraint with many of the seemingly more complicated intial compositions (of the panels especially), being 'erased' with white paint and offering only moody vapors of their previous incarnations. 'Knots' will be on display at Popopstudios until June 7th.Images taken from the Popopstudios website.
