Mark Bennett's (b. 1956, Tennessee) whimsical works engage with pop culture and celebrity to an extreme degree. His blueprint lithographs of Baby Boom era sitcoms and popular television series depict the ultimate pairing of flight of fancy and stoical logic; the purely imaginary floor plans grounded by the dry format of an architect's design. His works are both pleasingly nostalgic and vaguely disconcerting in their premonition of a society obsessed by television and celebrity culture.
Earning reverence from both critics and collectors alike, Bennett has been coined a master of nostalgia and social evaluation, acting as "the most earnest of his generation of West Coast artists drawing on popular culture" (Grady T. Turner, Art in America).
Since his induction into the gallery in 1995, Bennett has been included in over three dozen significant museum and group exhibitions, including those at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (D.C.), Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (CT), Walker Art Center (MN) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA). His work has been acquired for the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (NY), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA), Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Laguna Art Museum (CA), Crocker Art Museum (CA), Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada Las Vegas (NV), Museum of Fine Art Houston (TX), Corcoran Gallery of Art (DC), West Collection (PA), McNay Art Museum (TX), and the Portland Art Museum (OR), among others.
