I will be showing five of my most recent paintings from the Blindness series at the Paterson Art Walk on May 30. The event begins at 10:00 AM and ends at 10:00 PM on the same day.

My showing location is:
New Jersey Community Development Corporation building
32 Spruce Street
Paterson, NJ
07501

For more information, directions, and a full list of participating artists, visit the Paterson Art Walk website.



Add to: , , , , , ,

Add to: , , , , , ,

         The concept of the “Blindness series” is bleak optical mystery, inspired by varying levels of blindness - drawing from other sensory cues to create a dark and haunting atmosphere for the viewer to set drift upon. The disorienting compositions create levels of distress and confusion in addition to the blurring of lost sight. This in effect leaves the subject vulnerable and anxious, while the other senses are heightened in anticipation. Since art is such a visually driven force, lessening the clarity of the subject matter places the viewer in a position similar to the subject matter itself, immersing them into the vulnerable, isolated, and confusing atmosphere of the pieces.
    Two years in the making, new compositions void of the figure are being explored. This strategy of stripping away human elements serves to generate an even more barren and unsettling visual plane, leaving no familiarity for the viewer’s mind to hold onto comfortably. Select works from this series have won first place in the 2008 Karen Ziccardi awards, are in the process of being published in the collaborative book Anthologia de Poeta Incarcerare, and have been exhibited in the 11th annual “Postcards from the Edge” show.

The subject matter of my work is not a literal reflection of the concept. The content is the tool used to elicit a visual, mental, and sometimes physical reaction within the viewer, while the subject matter acts as the catalyst for this. Thereby the concept becomes apparent not through subject matter, but through content. The application of media, the color palette, composition and size of my works are all a part of the content - and this is what speaks to the viewer, while the subject matter becomes a means to relate this content to the viewer in a more approachable fashion.
    Blindness is not a concrete, tangible object. In order to relate the concept of blindness to a viewer, while still presenting a visual, I have laid a groundwork of atmosphere as my main focus. While the subject matter is not left to chance (my focus is on perceptual play with labyrinthine voids and barren spatial scapes, in a first person view), the presentation of these subject matters is what ultimately denotes the success level of each piece in relation to my concept.

New, large scale paintings from this series can be seen in the upcoming gallery show, "No Light Perception", at the NJCU Visual Arts Building Gallery on March 23, 2009.







    "The process of human metamorphosis causes the subject a great deal of emotional and mental turmoil and pain. It causes the subject to re-evaluate everything that they once believed as true, their values, thoughts, beliefs, desires and views, and literally reshape themselves into a new being.”  In the “Metamorphosis” series, the human form acts as the visual catalyst for representing these transformations within cocoons, eggs, pods, hosts, and wombs.

The book detailing the development, evolution and progression of this series can be downloaded in PDF format for free, or purchased in a softcover, full color, and perfect bound copy here.



    Her Aurora Borealis Mini Land/Skyscape painting series consist of twelve 4” x 6” pieces, depicting realistic views of the Northern Lights. They are defined as being “colored lights that occur in the northern regions of the earth, caused by a mixture of ionized oxygen and nitrogen gasses in the atmosphere.” Although these lights are a naturally occurring phenomena, the aurora borealis create an effect so otherworldly and phantasmagoric that they open up new possibilities in the ways that our plane of existence is viewed and understood. These lights are created by natural gasses, and are a common occurrence in certain places, but they create an effect that is so overwhelmingly surreal that it may lead the progressive thinker to question where exactly the lines between real and surreal, science and fiction, dreams and consciousness are solid and where they are blurred.

   
    Patricia Benitez is an East Coast based fine artist, specializing in painting and drawing. Her work is a never-ending attempt to realize the perfection of the human form and keep true to the traditional principles of art, all the while superimposing her own dark and unmistakable otherworldly aesthetic. Her inspirations come from a wide range of areas, such as the work of the Great Masters of the past, anthropomorphism, and the gradual synthetic progression into the future. The convergence of natural and chimerical elements create a phantasmagoric essence to her painstakingly detailed work , pulling the viewer into another world which serves as a diversion from an everyday reality.

 


Add to: , , , , , ,