Roger Bennett

biography  |  portfolio  |  artists listing

b. Co. Laois, Ireland


SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Columbus State University, Georgia
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
Office of Public Works, Ireland
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2009        Selected Works, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008        A Perfect Marriage: Wood & Color, CWA Exhibit, SOFA, Chicago, IL
                Gifted, Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford, Ireland
                Origin: The London Craft Fair, Somerset House, London, England
                Turning Wood Into Art 2008, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art Gallery, London, England
2006-08   Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL
2007        Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, New York, NY
                Exhibition, Eblana Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2006-07   Turned Wood-Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
                Selected Works, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006        Cabinet de Curiosités, Galerie Embargo, Paris, France   
                Origin, The London Craft Fair, Somerset House, London, UK
                Celtic Influences, The Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, UK
                Turning Wood into Art 2006, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art Gallery, London
                Collect 2006, Victoria & Albert Museum, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art London, UK 
2005        Chelsea Craft Fair, London, UK
                Collectors Ireland, Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland
                Forty Shades of Green, Crafts Council of Ireland, Touring
00-04       Review, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
                Solo Exhibition, Leitrim Design House, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
2004        Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Guest Artist Programme, USA
                Fine Forms, joint exhibition with Liam Flynn and Glenn Lucas, Éigse Arts Festival,
                        Carlow, Ireland
2003        Group Exhibition, William Frank Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2002-04  Of Colour in Craft, Crafts Council of Ireland, Touring
2000        Containers, Galway Arts Festival, Ireland
1999        Wood - The Beauty of Objects, Newfoundland; Ireland
1995        Eat Your Art Out, The Guinness Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
                Exploring the Lathe, Crafts Council of Ireland, Touring


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2006        Irish Arts Review. Winter. "Roger Bennett: Prizing Craft."
2005        Turning Points. Summer, Volume 17, No 4. "Sometimes the Wood Reveals Itself and
                        Surprises You- A Profile of Roger Bennett." O’Halloran, Ambrose. Pp 6-9.
2004        Garden Heaven. September/October. "Turning a Living." Flegg, Eleanor.
2000        Irish Times. August. "The Music of the Bowls" McKeon, Belinda.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Roger Bennett is an Irish woodturner who specialises in making very distinctive one-off bowls and vessels, usually thin-walled, inlaid with silver or gold, and coloured with water-based woodstains. He works mostly in sycamore, whose pale surface is an excellent canvas for his colouring techniques.

Roger attempts to create a sense of lightness and delicacy in his bowls. His signature shape resembles an inverted cone, with the rim flaring out gracefully from a narrow base. He adds silver or gold, by inserting sterling silver or 18-carat gold wire into hundreds - sometimes thousands - of individually- drilled holes. The patterns created were described by Eleanor Flegg in The Sunday Times as being “as distinctive and hypnotic as fingerprints, ranging from geometric spirals to hand-drawn wave patterns”.

Some of his newest bowls are in a more traditional concave shape: textured on the outside, and designed to fit comfortably in the hand, these are filled with points of silver which glow like constellations of stars in a night sky.

Recently, Roger has added a new jewelry line – pendants and brooches - to his range, using similar colouring and inlaying techniques.

Roger Bennett is a graduate (English and French) of Trinity College, Dublin, and worked for several years as a secondary school teacher.

He began woodturning in 1992.

In 1994-5, he was the first woodturner to participate in the Craft and Design Business Development course, run by the Crafts Council of Ireland in Kilkenny.

He has been self-employed since then; his studio is at his home in Dublin.