Introduction
John Benicewicz was born in 1975 in Waterbury, Connecticut. His current studio is located in Long Island City, where he also lives and works. His expressive and technical abilities were noticed early and by the age of eighteen he had mounted three successful solo exhibitions.
Mimsie Coleman, former director of the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery (formerly Small Space Gallery) at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven 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. His work is now held in the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art and many private collections.
Since his first early shows in the 1990’s Benicewicz has pursued his own artistic path, deciding to remain outside the standard graduate-to-gallery system. With the exception of a year of training at Parsons School of Design and a second year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Benicewicz is largely self-taught and he has pursued a singular and highly original journey.
Because Benicewicz taught himself to paint and draw through his careful observation of art history and the natural world, his work has remained unconventional and often startling. For example a viewer will note that the new works contain some striking eccentricities (a marked preoccupation with the life cycles of bees and a related exploration of queer sexuality, compressed into a daring symbiosis). These works defy easy category, they unsettle and disorientate, and their liminality richly rewards careful viewing.
It’s particularly striking how his work departs from the mainstream whilst remaining conscious of contemporary art historical practice, as he fearlessly pursues his own creative signals.
For the past decade Benicewicz has created a provocative and highly original body of new work. It is my pleasure to introduce them to you in the hope that you will share my admiration for his achievements.
Cahir O'Doherty
Arts Editor, The Irish Voice