Chris Bennett was born in London in 1957 and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in the early 1980s. As one of Britain's most highly regarded artists Chris has exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Show and at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries, London; his current works can be seen in prestigious galleries around the UK, America and Worldwide. Chris has als
Chris Bennett was born in London in 1957 and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in the early 1980s. As one of Britain's most highly regarded artists Chris has exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Show and at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries, London; his current works can be seen in prestigious galleries around the UK, America and Worldwide. Chris has also undertaken a range of prestigious commissions.
In the 2000s, Chris released a series of bestselling limited editions, a tribute to 1950s Americana, automobiles and well-dressed men and women. These where widely distributed through UK galleries and further cemented him as one of the UK's most sort after modern-figurative artists.
Although Chris paints from his imagination he always ensures that the raw materials of that imaginative world are common to us all and not just his personal concerns. In the past myths and legends, many of them religious, were the inspiration behind the artist's dreams. Today of course these stories are less familiar, and to some extent they have been replaced with modern alternatives. The car, the aeroplane, the detective, the film star and the city are some of the players in our modern mythological landscape.
The stories around these basic, iconic objects are the expressions of what we love, fear and aspire to and, like the movies, are about a century old. In general Chris's fascinating images are set around the distinctive era of the 1950s, as he believes that this is an effective, as well as aesthetically pleasing way to give the objects in the paintings their most universal and iconic form within our own times.
Some of Chris’ awards and prizes include:
2018 - The Alan Gourley Memorial Award, ROI
2016 - 1st prize in the Stanley Grimm Memorial Award for the painting that received most votes by the visiting public
2011 - The picture the ROI judges would most like to take home with them
2011 - The Cornellisen Award for the most notable work in the ROI exhibition
