Based in the North East of England, Emma Bennett is an artist who produces paintings, drawings, sculptures and site-specific wall paintings. By the use of colour, pattern and place she uses her personal connections and memories to Modernist and Post-War Architecture to comment on social histories and nostalgia.
She is also developing an ongoing series of map drawings. By using old charts and employing early triangulation methods used in navigation, she plots personal journeys that are informed by travel, memory and personal connection. The levels of opacity within the coloured areas of the drawings relate to how vivid her recollection may be.
EDUCATION
2019 MA in Fine Art (Distinction), Mima School of Art & Design, Teesside University
2009 BA (Hons) in Fine Art, Teesside University
1994 BTEC HND in Design, Berkshire College of Art & Design
1992 BTEC Diploma in Art & Design, Cleveland College of Art & Design
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 DOWN TOWN, The Masham, Middlesbrough
2021 Above Ground, Gallagher and Turner, Newcastle
2018 High Rise, The Calver Gallery, South Square, Bradford
2016-17 Altered Space, Platform A Gallery
2015 Emma Bennett, The Tunnel Gallery, Middlesbrough Train Station Underpass
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 A Generous Space 2, The New Gallery Walsall
2021/22 Ten Years, Platform A Gallery
2021 In the Castle Of My Skin (Group show led and curated by Sonia Boyce), Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Mima)
2021 BRUTAL, Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2020 DANCE FIRST THINK LATER, General Practice, Lincoln
2020 Traces of Reality, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2019 LEGACY - 50 years of painting in the Tees Valley, The Auxiliary
2019 MAJOR CONVERSATIONS: The Industrial Narrative, The Turnpike, Leigh
2019 MATERIALS, Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough Art Weekender
2019 Blanket: MA Fine Art Degree Show, Mima School of Art
2019 Marked Transitions, The Auxiliary
2019 Beyond Graduation, Heritage Gallery, Cargo Fleet
2018 ARTISTS LIVE HERE /ARTISTS WORK HERE, Middlesbrough Town Hall Flagpoles
2018 Manchester Contemporary showing with Platform A Gallery
2018 Commonplace, Crown Street Gallery, Darlington
2018 Then and Now, The Bowery Gallery, Leeds
2017 Head Space, The Constantine Gallery, Middlesbrough
2017 Gilkes Street Artists, Heritage Gallery, Cargo Fleet
2017 Magical Geometry, Chapel Gallery, Lancashire
2017 INPRINT 2017, Teesside University
2015 SELFHOODS, The Constantine Gallery, Middlesbrough
2015 Localism, mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), Middlesbrough
2015 Traverse, Python Gallery, Middlesbrough
2015 Beyond Repetition, The Bowery Gallery, Leeds
2015 Surface, The Constantine Gallery, Middlesbrough
2015 GROUNDED, Platform A Gallery
2015 INPRINT 2015, Teesside University
2014 Postcards to America- Exchange Rates, Brooklyn, New York
2014 Recursive, No Format Gallery, London
2013 Draw, Gilkes Street Artists Gallery, The Crafts Centre, Middlesbrough
2009 Can You Fine Art Degree Show, Teesside University
PRIZES, AWARDS & OPEN SUBMISSION
2021 Baltic Open, The Baltic, Gateshead
2021 ReCultivate
2020 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition (selected by Mervyn Metcalf) http://discerningeye.org/archive/2020/2020_7.php
2020/21 Curator's Choice: Exhibition of Northern Art at Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough Art Gallery
2020 Tees Valley Response Collecting Scheme – 2 paintings acquired for Mima’s Middlesbrough Collection
2020 MORE T'NORTH, The Harris, Preston
2019 Gallagher and Turner Open Exhibition, Newcastle
2019 Paint - PS Mirabel Painting Prize, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2019 Creative Factory Production Grant Award (Creative Factory is Middlesbrough Council's Great Places Tees Valley Project)
2018 The KPP Prize for Art, Architecture + Design: Forms Assembled in the Light, Leeds (Prizewinner- Runner up)
2018 Stockton Contemporary
2018 Twice as Nice, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2017 Dialogus, Vane, Newcastle
2017 Small World, PS Mirabel, Manchester (Highly Commended)
2017 Blimey X, Cornmill Centre, Darlington
2017 Middlesbrough Art Weekender
2016 Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2016 West Lancashire Open Exhibition, Chapel Gallery, Lancashire
2016 Long-listed for Contemporary British Painting Prize
2015 Wells Art Contemporary 2015, Wells Museum, Wells, Somerset (Selected by Richard Wentworth, Mariele Neudecker & Donald Smith)
2015 Mima Artist’s Bursary
2014 Mima Visual Arts Bursary
2014 Platform A Gallery Mentoring Program (mentored by Lothar Goetz)
2014 From Here and There: Drawings from the UK, Elysium Offsite, Swansea
2014 Wells Art Contemporary 2014, Wells Museum, Wells, Somerset (Selected by Richard Wentworth, Anita Taylor & Donald Smith)
2014 From Here and There: Drawings from Swansea to Colorado, Clara Hatton Gallery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. USA
2010 Salon Art Prize, Matt Roberts Arts Project Space, Vyner St, East London (Selected by Kate MacGarry, Peter Bonnell & Richard Birkett)
COMMISSIONS
2022 Site specific work - Gallery, The Masham Commission, vinyl emulsion on wall, dimensions variable, The Masham, Middlesbrough. Commissioned by Navigator North
2021 Site specific work - Gallery, Pink Walkway, vinyl emulsion on wall, 9 x 4.75m, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
2021 Public Art Commissions, Car Park Stairway located on the Cleveland Centre, digital print on aluminium, 3 x 4m and Broadcasting House Reimagined located on the Brentnall Business Centre, digital print on aluminium, 2 x 2.5 m, commissioned by Middlesbrough Council & Navigator North
2019 Site specific work - Gallery, Yellow Parallels, vinyl emulsion on wall, 11 x 3.7m, The Auxiliary
2016 Site specific work - Gallery, Register Office (Still Standing), acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, Platform A Gallery
2014 Site specific work- Public, Speaker, acrylic and vinyl on wall, dimensions variable, Brentnall Business Centre, 65 Gilkes Street, Middlesbrough
RESIDENCIES
2016-17 Artist in residence (AA2A project) at Teesside University
2014-15 Artist in residence (AA2A project) at Teesside University
REVIEWS
2015 Narc Magazine, Selfhoods
2015 Corridor 8 Journal, text by Annie O’Donnell http://www.corridor8.co.uk/online/review-grounded-platform-a-middlesbrough/
PUBLICATIONS
2020 Hearing from Artists http://mima.art/hearing-from-artists/
2020 Mimazina #14, Mima & Foundation Press
2018 Then and Now, 2008 - 2018, The Bowery Gallery
2017 Lungs 2, Lungs Project
2017 Middlesbrough Art Weekender
2014 Drawings From Here and There, Elysium Gallery
