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.
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.