Greg Bennett has created a set or installation using objects as accents like glass or silk to reflect the light, to slow or alter it while traveling through space. Bennett selected these particular images not only for the emotional response he felt, but also for their strong composition and ability to create a visual grip. By using installation as a tool the paintings pull your focus and encourage the act of looking for the sake of pleasure. There is the surface of the painting and the illusion of depth, reflection, refraction and transparency working collectively to show a love for modernist design and also to demonstrate a romantic notion of painting and beauty.

The final paintings appear to be 'abstract' but are based on actual photographs of installations in the landscape. Bennett confronts the notion of what is 'abstract'. The days of 'profound' abstract painting are no longer. Concerned with modernist design principles, and a plain old fashioned romantic notion of 'painting' and 'beauty', Bennett's paintings are replaced with sharp wit that mixes up the definitions of 'realism' and 'abstraction'. Bennett engages the viewer in a renewed sense of dialogue about contemporary painting that extends it reach beyond the concept of 'art for art sake'.

Greg Bennett is a painter that resides in St. John's.

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