Dan Bennett was born in Kent in 1975, and currently lives and works in Brighton. He was awarded a full art scholarship to Epsom College in 1988, and in 1998 gained a 2:1 BA Fine Art degree from Leeds University.

Dan is a member of Studio 106, an artists' collective that works and exhibits in a converted warehouse in the Poet's Corner district of Hove. Dan exhibits at various galleries and art fairs throughout the UK and the US.

artist's statement

Phosphenes have intrigued Dan since his childhood. The intricate swirling patterns that form before the inner eye have been a constant source of inspiration and the mainstay of his artistic production. The spirals, dots, parallel and meandering lines, arcs, grids, circles and zigzags that dance across closed eyelids are a direct link to our cultural ancestry. These patterns are found throughout the ancient and modern world. From lost cultures in the Arizonan desert and Peruvian rainforests, up to contemporary cultural practices such as African body art and Aboriginal dot paintings, these hard-wired geometric hallucinations form a shared base for our disparate human experiences. They are a bridge between our conscious minds and our vivid dream worlds. By capturing these fleeting patterns in the form of plants and other organisms, Dan is expressing his belief in the oneness of life, and hinting at a glimpse of an underlying structure he thought he once saw out of the corner of his eye.

selected group shows

background

1998 Leeds University | BA fine art
1994 The Surrey Institute | BTEC art foundation
1988 Epsom College | full art scholarship
1975 Born | Kent

awards

2006 shortlisted for the Celeste Art Prize

commissions

2006 centaurea2 triptych for The Wisley golf club

solo shows