Garry Knox Bennett Works Biography
Garry Knox Bennett: Statement
My formal training in painting and sculpture enabled me to develop a fairly original approach to my functional work.
My preference is to work alone. I do very little drawing with regard to what I make. I will often start with just a line drawn directly onto wood or metal (for a starting point) with no specific piece of work in mind. I enjoy following a thought or material (or often just a shape I come upon) to a final resolution. I tend to work in series; benches, tables, clocks, lamps, sculptural pieces and most recently, chairs and small tables. I design and fabricate my own hardware which, for me, serves to complete the overall design elements in a more original and cohesive manner.
Visual excitement is a large part of what I try to incorporate into my work. I tend to employ a broad range of diverse material often incorporating found or re-purposed objects. This diversity allows me to select successful elements that will serve to resolve issues (with design and composition) that can occur as a piece evolves.
I love challenge and will intentionally try to set up situations that keep pushing me forward. I enjoy taking one element and letting it re-emerge in subsequent pieces until I feel that any issues I may perceive have been resolved.
Pulling together all of the visual and material components (surface, color, texture, etc.) that go into my work creates excitement for me and serves as a continuing challenge. I follow the same process with my painting, jewelry and sculptural work.
GKB 2016
GARRY KNOX BENNETT
Born: Alameda California, 1934
EDUCATION
California College of the Arts (formally CCAC) Oakland/San Francisco CA
SELECTED EXHIBITION HISTORY
Solo Exhibitions
2016 Garry Knox Bennett: Inside at Pritam & Eames, The Gallery at Somes Sound ME
2015 Garry Knox Bennett: Inside at Pritam & Eames, The Gallery at Somes Sound ME
Airplane” B. Sakata Garo Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2014 Velvet Da Vinci gallery, San Francisco CA
2014 B. Sakata Garo gallery, Sacramento CA
2013 Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA
2013 Gallery Naga, Boston MA
2011 Gallery NAGA, Garry Knox Bennett: Lights, Tables, Bling – Boston MA
2010 Richmond Arts Center, CA (pending) 9/12/10 – 11/13/10
2009 Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto CA
2009 Katzen Center, American University DC
2009 American Association of Woodturners at Albuquerque NM
2008 Fuller Museum, Brockton MA
2008 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington DE
2008 Gallery NAGA, Boston MA
2007 Racine Art Museum, Racine WI
2006 Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue WA
2005 Gallery 555/Sculpture Court, Oakland Museum, CA
2003 Leo Kaplan Modern, New York
2002 Leo Kaplan Modern Gallery, New York
2001 Museum of Arts & Design, New York: Retrospective Exhibition
2001 Julie: Artisans’ Gallery, New York
2001 Leo Kaplan Modern Gallery, New York
2001 Oakland Museum, California: Retrospective Exhibition
2001 Tercera Gallery, San Francisco CA
1999 Leo Kaplan Modern Gallery, New York
1998 Peter Joseph Gallery, New York
1998 Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
1996-97 Peter Joseph Gallery, New York
1995 Peter Joseph Gallery, New York
1994 Peter Joseph Gallery, New York
1993-1960:
Kummer-Stewart Gallery, Gualala CA
The Hand and the Spirit Gallery, Scottsdale AZ
Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia PA
Brendan Walter Gallery, Carmel CA
Elaine Potter Gallery, San Francisco CA* Foster Goldstrom Gallery, San Francisco CA
& Dallas TX
Workbench Gallery, New York
Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles CA
Alexander F. Milliken Gallery, NY
Julie: Artisans’ Gallery, NY
Group Exhibitions
2016 The Spotlight: Functional Lighting as Illuminated Sculpture, Craft In America center,
Los Angeles CA
2016 California Wood Artists: Maloof and Beyond, Sam & Alfreda Maloof Foundation for
Arts and Crafts, Los Angeles CA
2015 50 Years of Works, Snyderman/Works Gallery, Philadelphia PA
2015 Maloof Foundation, California Makers, CA
2013 Reform Gallery, Los Angeles CA
2012 Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco CA
2012 Center for Wood Art, Philadelphia PA
2012 Gallery Naga, Boston MA
2011 Postmodernism, Victoria & Albert Museum, London England 8/25/11
2010 Form & Function, The Atrium, San Francisco CA (Two-person exhibition)
2010 Craft in America, Silver Dollar City 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Kansas City MO
(Invitational)
2010 Gallery Naga, Boston MA
2010 Mobielia Gallery, Cambridge MA
2009 Far Side of Function: contemporary works in wood, DairyBarn Arts Center Athens OH
2009 Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco CA
2008 Art In America (traveling cont.)
2007 Gallery NAGA, Boston MA
2007 Craft In America , Little Rock AK (travel several years) includes PBS award winning
segment
2006 Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA
2005 Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco CA
2005 Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge MA
2005 Gallery NAGA, Boston MA
2005 The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco CA
2005 Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia PA
2003-04 California Design 2004, San Francisco CA
2003-4 San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design, CA
2003-4 Frankfurt 9th Triennial, Museum fur Angewande Kunst, Frankfurt GR (Traveled to
Klingspor Museum, Offenbach Germany and Museum of Arts & Design, New York)
2003 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
2003 Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia PA
2003 Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia PA
2003 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
2003 Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia PA
2003 Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia PA
2002 Fuller Museum, Brockton MA (Traveled to Houston Center for Contemporary Craft,
Houston TX)
2002 California Design 2002, San Francisco CA
2002 Furniture Society “The Right Stuff” (invited artist) (exhibition traveled through 2003
to 2002 University of Wisconsin, Madison & N. Carolina St. U.)
2002 Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, Brookfield CT
2001 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas CA
2001 Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield CT
2001 SOFA Chicago, IL
2000 American Craft Museum, New York
2000 Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte NC
2000 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
1999 Crocker Museum, Sacramento CA
1999 Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA
1999 Tercera Gallery, San Francisco CA
1998 Craft & Folk Art Museum, San Francisco CA
1998 Tercera Gallery, San Francisco CA
1997-96 Neuberger Museum, Purchase NY
1996-97 Oakland Museum, CA
1996-97 Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto CA (two-person exhibition)
1995 Wharton Esheric Museum, Paoli PA
1995 Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles CA
1994 Contemporary Craft Museum, San Francisco CA
1994 Oakland Museum, CA
1993-1960:
Oakland Museum, CA
American Craft Museum, New York
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, WDC
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
Gallery NAGA, Boston MA
Monterey Museum, CA
Society for Arts & Crafts, Boston MA
Triton Museum of Art, Palo Alto CA
Elements Gallery, NY
California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland CA
De Anza College Museum, Cupertino CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Note: Group exhibitions started in 1960 with painting & sculpture. One-person exhibitions started in 1962. First exhibition as a furniture maker was in 1979. Range of work includes: painting, sculpture, prints. Functional work includes: jewelry, clocks, lamps and a full range of furniture.
Additionally: A more complete bibliography and exhibition history is available on request or can be found in the book “Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett”. (This book was published on the occasion of a major retrospective which opened at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York (formally the American Craft Museum) in 2001 and traveled to the Oakland Museum in California later that year.
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Museum of Arts & Design, NY
De Young Museum, San Francisco CA
Fine Arts Museum, Mobile AL
Judah Magnus Museum, Oakland CA
Mint Museum of Arts + Design, Charlotte NC
Montreal Museum of Art,, Canada
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
Oakland Museum, CA
Racine Art Museum, WI
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, WDC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington DE
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design
Victoria & Albert Museum, London UK
Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue WA
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens GA
LACMA, Los Angeles CA
AWARDS
2011 Master of the Medium – James Renwick Alliance, Smithsonian Museum
2004 Merit Award, Lifetime Achievement – Furniture Society
1996 American Craft Council, College of Fellows
1984 Merit Grant, National Endowment for the Arts
1975 Award, Contemporary Crafts of the Americas
1974 Award, De Anza College
1960 Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
ARCHIVAL COLLECTION: SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 2003
Archives of American Art’s Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project: All papers and personal files, photographs and a complete oral history (available on line). All Material from ongoing career will continue to be archived.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND BOOKS
Furniture with Soul: Master Woodworkers and Their Craft (japanese & english pub.)
Kodansha, 2011
Twirlings: Garry Knox Bennett – Stepping away from Bowl-ness (catalog), American
Association of Woodturners, 2009
Garry Knox Bennett: Call Me Chairmaker (catalog) Bellevue Arts Museum, 2006
Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett American Craft Museum, 2001
Explorations II: The New Furniture, American Craft Museum, 1991
Art for Everyday: The New Craft Movement Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 1990
New American Furniture: The Second Generation of Studio Furniture Makers Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, 1990
American Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical Wienfield and Nicholson, 1986
Contemporary American Woodworkers Layton, Utah: Gribbs M. Smith, 1986
American Craft, A Source Book for the Home Stuart, Tabori & Chang, Inc., 1983
VIDEOS
2007 Craft In America – PBS segment (aired nationally)
2005 Artist at Work: Garry Knox Bennett – Spark segment, KQED inc.
2001 Dialog & Interview at the Oakland Museum: Garry with John R. Marlowe and Abby
Wasserman, Retrospective exhibition at the Oakland Museum CA.
2001 Unedited video: walk through and discussion with Garry and Ursula Ilse-Neuman
(curator for the 2001 retrospective exhibition Made in Oakland: the Furniture of Garry
Knox Bennett) at the opening of the exhibition, New York venue.
1994 Cut Loose: New American Furniture Makers, San Francisco CA: Minott Weihnacht
Productions, (1994 Cine golden Eagle award).
