Biography
John Benicewicz was born in 1975 in Waterbury, Connecticut.
In September 2016 in his exhibition at the Fred Giampietro Gallery, Benicewicz was hailed as “a master of summoning the human figure without so much as explicitly depicting an individual face…”
Benicewicz’s Self-portrait, 2016, revels in ambiguity The Yale Daily News wrote. “(But) its abstraction reveals far more than a naturalistic self-portrait ever could. It is compelling, frightening, baffling and, above all, honest…”
Benicewicz’s interest in art began at an early age, leading to a year of training at Parsons School of Design and then a second year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, but absent these studies he is largely self-taught.
Mimsie Coleman, former director of the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery and an early champion of his work enthused, “He can draw with ease in a classical Renaissance style, or paint masterfully in a Realist or Surrealistic manner. His style is unique and his talent enormous.”
Coleman’s arts venue hosted the launch of Benicewicz’s third highly successful exhibition, The New Circus in the 1990’s.
Since his first early shows Benicewicz has forged his own artistic path, deciding to remain outside the standard graduate-to-gallery system. Because he is self-taught his work has remained unconventional and often startlingly original.
A viewer will note striking eccentricities in every decade of his work (a marked preoccupation with the life cycles of bees erotically allied to an exploration of queer sexuality, for example).
His paintings defy easy category then; they unsettle and disorientate, but their liminality richly rewards careful viewing.
Particularly striking are the ways in which his work departs from the mainstream whilst remaining conscious of both contemporary and historical art, as he fearlessly pursues his own creative signals.
Benicewicz’s work is now held in the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City and in many private collections.
Benicewicz currently lives and works in New York City.
C.O., 9/17/2017
