MICHELLE BENOIT

MICHELLE BENOIT embeds her memories of people, places, and events by utilizing combinations of colors. Created with precision, her fragment-like paintings and sculptures bare no mark-making or mounting of any kind. The sheets of lucite refer to physical evidence of time passing like layers of sediment or rings on a tree. Being symmetrical, the work alludes to elements found in nature such as gemstones and insect shells. Despite their material densities, they also have the appearance of fantastic futurist-inspired totems.

Michelle Benoit introduces her series of sculptures the first time. These glass-like objects are created, like her paintings, with lucite. The reclaimed fragments are then cut, painted, and fused together to unveil a new composition of color that glows luminously from the inside out. Made of just one base, Benoit’s astonishing new sculptures appear to defy gravity. Her works have a floating quality that is best revealed as the viewer is moving around the object.

MICHELLE BENOIT received a BFA from Rhode Island College and an MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. Benoit was the recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship at the University of Iowa, the Merit Fellowship in Painting from Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Berkshire Taconic’s A.R.T. Grant, as well as consecutive Special Talent Awards from Rhode Island College. Her work has been exhibited at museums, institutions, and galleries: Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, VA; Bristol Museum of Art, Bristol, RI; Harper Center for the Arts, Clinton, SC; Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University; Jamestown Arts Center, Jamestown, RI; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; High Noon Gallery, New York, NY; Thomas Punzmann Contemporary, Frankfurt, Germany; Morotti Arte Contemporanea: Strata di Luce, Milan, Italy; and more. In addition, her work is in many public and private collections including UT Southwestern Medical Center; Memorial Sloan Kettering; The University of Iowa Museum; and The Swain School of Design.