b. Co. Laois, Ireland
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
Columbus State University, Georgia
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
Office of Public Works, Ireland
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007 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
SOFA Chicago, National Craft Gallery, Ireland
Origin, The London Craft Fair, Somerset House, London, UK
Celtic Influences, The Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, UK
Turning Wood into Art, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art Gallery, London, UK
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 exhibition
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 exhibition
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 exhibition
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006 Irish Arts Review, "Roger Bennett: Prizing Craft", winter
2005 Turning Points, Ambrose O'Halloran, "Sometimes the Wood Reveals
Itself and Surprises You- A Profile of Roger Bennett", summer
2004 Garden Heaven, Eleanor Flegg, "Turning a Living", September/October
2000 Irish Times, Belinda McKeon, "The Music of he Bowls", August
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".