P a i n t i n g t h e U n s e e n / Abstract Works on Paper by Pamela Benham
Faulkner Gallery East, Santa Barbara Library
March 2 – 31, 2013
Reception with the Artist: First Thursday, March 7th, 5:00 to 8:00 pm
Pamela Benham’s paintings shown here at the Faulkner East Gallery bring to mind Rothko’s description of his own work as “emotional truths”. This artist unabashedly brings forth a visual symphony of confusion, foreboding, passion, liberation, and ecstasy through her untethered play of brushstroke and color. In contrast to the bright acrylics on canvas seen in Benham’s solo show at Gallery 113 last November, this series of fifteen works on paper is a full-spectrum expression in vivid oils.
Josef Woodard described her painting Untitled in the exhibit Peripheral Visions as a “…flamboyant and flame-like expression of unhinged color and gesture. That painting shouts for joy, maybe with a tinge of angst”.
In her words, Benham speaks of the source of her works:
“Painting brings me to give shape to those lingering, persistent emotions that are sensed, yet unrecognized. They may have taken up restless waiting after a confusing incident, a passionate exchange, seeing something upsetting or witnessing a sublimely tender event. Then the pigments show me. The tones and hues, brush strokes, wild and nuanced, tell it all; give form to the unsaid in a revealing painting.”
Benham studied painting in New York City at the Art Students’ League under a Ford Foundation Scholarship, and graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She then studied in Paris for two years at the Ecolé des Beaux-Arts with Pierre Carron. Other influential teachers were Robert Beverly Hale, Wolf Kahn, Dory Ashton, Paul Resika, Leland Bell, Stephen Posen, Rick Stich, and Tony Askew.
She worked for Claes Oldenburg, painting his Extinguished Match and Knife Boat which was installed in the Guggenheim Museum with her assistance in 1985.
Recipient of an Adolph Gottlieb Grant, Benham was also awarded artist-in-residencies at Skowhegan School in Maine, Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Parson’s Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic, and Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.
She has exhibited internationally in museums and galleries including the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City, the Musée d’Art Moderne and the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. She has had over twenty solo exhibitions in galleries in New York including the Miller, Susan Schreiber and Jayne Baum Gallery.
After twenty-four years of painting in New York City, Benham now works in her established Studio 93, and is happy to call Santa Barbara her home.
Faulkner Gallery East, Santa Barbara Library
March 2 – 31, 2013
Reception with the Artist: First Thursday, March 7th, 5:00 to 8:00 pm
Pamela Benham’s paintings shown here at the Faulkner East Gallery bring to mind Rothko’s description of his own work as “emotional truths”. This artist unabashedly brings forth a visual symphony of confusion, foreboding, passion, liberation, and ecstasy through her untethered play of brushstroke and color. In contrast to the bright acrylics on canvas seen in Benham’s solo show at Gallery 113 last November, this series of fifteen works on paper is a full-spectrum expression in vivid oils.
Josef Woodard described her painting Untitled in the exhibit Peripheral Visions as a “…flamboyant and flame-like expression of unhinged color and gesture. That painting shouts for joy, maybe with a tinge of angst”.
In her words, Benham speaks of the source of her works:
“Painting brings me to give shape to those lingering, persistent emotions that are sensed, yet unrecognized. They may have taken up restless waiting after a confusing incident, a passionate exchange, seeing something upsetting or witnessing a sublimely tender event. Then the pigments show me. The tones and hues, brush strokes, wild and nuanced, tell it all; give form to the unsaid in a revealing painting.”
Benham studied painting in New York City at the Art Students’ League under a Ford Foundation Scholarship, and graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She then studied in Paris for two years at the Ecolé des Beaux-Arts with Pierre Carron. Other influential teachers were Robert Beverly Hale, Wolf Kahn, Dory Ashton, Paul Resika, Leland Bell, Stephen Posen, Rick Stich, and Tony Askew.
She worked for Claes Oldenburg, painting his Extinguished Match and Knife Boat which was installed in the Guggenheim Museum with her assistance in 1985.
Recipient of an Adolph Gottlieb Grant, Benham was also awarded artist-in-residencies at Skowhegan School in Maine, Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Parson’s Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic, and Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.
She has exhibited internationally in museums and galleries including the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City, the Musée d’Art Moderne and the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. She has had over twenty solo exhibitions in galleries in New York including the Miller, Susan Schreiber and Jayne Baum Gallery.
After twenty-four years of painting in New York City, Benham now works in her established Studio 93, and is happy to call Santa Barbara her home.