Artist Painter Jennifer Benn's work examines technology and the effect of technology on the world. Through the research of drawing, painting and visually and socially examining computers, rockets, space-shuttles, remote controls and other sci-fi images, and their place in this time, she seeks to comprehend them better and to re-present them for the viewer in a revealed vision. It is through visual interpretation that Benn hopes to re-awaken our senses and minds to notice how technology has changed, and is changing the world. In Benn’s view, Chaos and Order, Creation and Destruction and Recreation are the connections between painting, art and technology.
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Benn sees her own work to be a visual exploration and understanding of scientific technology –“worked out” in the time-honored medium of oil paint; albeit with modern interference and metallic oil paints on black gesso’d canvas. The artist communicates about the world and culture in which she lives, striving to assimilate new technologies and still appreciating the different worlds before and after these advances.
A long time science fiction & cyberpunk fan, she also sites a philosophy class called "Computer Power and Human Reason" as a strong impetus for this inquiry she has long been pursuing. She also credits a painting teacher in Italy who said "Paint [about] something you love and /or something you hate" for starting her down this path, as well as her time working for a computer magazine and friends who work in the computer industry as strong influences on her content. She says that synchronicity also has a hand in providing the right books, people, machines, movies, ideas, exhibits and images to further support her thesis. And she would remind you, of this pseudo Buddhist quote from the movie Buckaroo Banzai!, "No matter Where you Go, There you Are."
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In 1994 Benn earned a MFA in Painting from Syracuse University and previously a BFA from the University of New Hampshire. Benn has exhibited her work throughout New England and the USA. In 1999 she was awarded the Currier Museum of Arts highest award in the annual NH Art Association juried exhibit and in 2004 she won the prestigious Ezekiel A. Straw award. She enjoys travel and exploring new places and has taken part in artists' residencies both in Ireland and in Spain. She has also led 4 college summer programs to study Art and Culture in Ireland at the Burren College of Art. Since 1990 she has taught at various colleges including University College, Syracuse University, UNH-Manchester, the NH Art Institute, Hesser College, Chester College of New England and currently offers private lessons from her Button Factory Studio in Portsmouth New Hampshire.
Benn was born in New Hampshire and she resides there.