Tim Bennett (born 1973) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

artist, working in Germany. He is best known for his sculpture and installation work.

Early life and education

He was born in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

. After completing his A-levels in 1991, Bennett travelled and worked around Europe, settling in Germany to train as a cook. He began studying fine art in 2000 (Ben Willikens and Hermann Pitz) and completed his diploma in 2006. After receiving a scholarship from the

Cusanuswerk The Cusanuswerk is one of the thirteen German sponsorship organizations financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) to promote gifted students. It is headquartered in Bonn. History The Cusanuswerk was founded in 1956 u ...

to do a master's degree in Fine Art at

Goldsmiths A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable ...

, University of London, he lived in London from 2006 to 2008. Since 2008 he lives and works in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany.

Career

Prior to his studies Bennett supplemented his income through

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

painting. The experience of working as a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...

from 1998 to 2000 helped develop his interest in sculpture. His early sculptural work was figurative in style but featured many of the materials characteristic of his current practice: metal, stone,

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

and

plasterboard Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gib board, gypsum board, buster board, turtles board, slap board, custard board, gypsum panel and gyprock) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or witho ...

. A key work from this period is his diploma piece, ''Glypte,'' consisting of a wire-mesh head on a modelling stand, combined with plaster pieces broken off from a nearby wall. At Goldsmiths, Bennett moved away from figuration and began to widen his range of references. His final year exhibition, ''Eden and Francis'', featured a 5m long wall made of plasterboard, painted to give the illusion of metal. Another version of the wall, ''Eden II'', was shown at the Diözesanmuseum,

Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Isar river in ...

in 2009 and a painted wall featured in ''Reduction & Suspense'' also in 2009. For his 2007 large-scale installation at the BBK in Munich, ''Raum in Raum,'' he again used plasterboard to create a 4m high tree, its shape referencing

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

's engraving, ''

Melencolia I ''Melencolia I'' is a large 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. Its central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholia – melancholy. Holding her head in ...

''. Informed by

Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

's ''Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste,'' Bennett's later work became more humorous and knowingly self-referential, playing with the distinctions between

high art In a society, high culture encompasses cultural objects of aesthetic value that a society collectively esteems as exemplary works of art, as well as the literature, music, history, and philosophy a society considers representative of its cultur ...

and low art,

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

s and

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

, and

elitism Elitism is the notion that individuals who form an elite — a select group with desirable qualities such as intellect, wealth, power, physical attractiveness, notability, special skills, experience, lineage — are more likely to be construc ...

and

populism Populism is a essentially contested concept, contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the "common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently a ...

. For his first solo exhibition at Jo van der Loo, ''Time is a Waste'' in 2014, Bennett walled up the small space in order to create a plasterboard room. Combining a traditional language of fine art with non-art gestures, he used the plaster fragments from the punctured exit holes to make the room's central sculpture, placed on a marble plinth. Like the wall, the plinth is a reoccurring motif in Bennett work. Bennett chooses to present his sculptures with two dimensional work, often involving the process of

intarsia Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique inserts sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pearl) within the solid wood ...

. In ''Time is a Waste'' these consisted of chipboard inlayed with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

marble, again combining high and low art elements. For his second show at Jo van de Loo, ''me_is____ter,'' he exhibited the series ''Conspiracy Clouds'', made by pouring wet plaster through a hole punctured in the plasterboard. The work employs a well-known

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

gesture to address art's traditional narrative of the

genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

and his

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

. In his 2017 exhibition at GiG Munich, ''Beletage'', Tim Bennett explored the process of

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

. To continue his work on gentrification he was awarded the 2017 Stipendium für Bildende Kunst der Landeshauptstadt München.

Commissions

Tim Bennett is involved with the 'Kunst am Bau' programme, Quivid, completing ''Es war einmal ein Baum'' in 2013 and ''Maiwurm'' in 2017. Kunst am ZiF commissioned ''Trophies'' in 2018, a series of

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

looking sculptures''.'' His most recent commission, ''Spring Again'', has been for the Erlöserkirche in Munich and consists of both performance and sculpture.

Selected exhibitions

*2010: ''Das ist Programme'', Steinle Contemporary, Munich *2010: ''Monumental Structures'', Kunstverein SUSI, Cologne *2011: ''Trenddesign'', GlasMoog, Cologne *2011: ''Sidelines'', Kunstraum, Munich *2012: ''All things bright and broken'', Galerie Jahn, Munich *2013: ''Konstrakt'', Galerie Jahn, Munich *2014: ''Bienvenue'', Galerie Jahn, Munich *2014: ''time is a waste,'' Jo van de Loo, Munich *2015: ''Then is now'', Galerie Bezirk Oberbayern *2016: ''me_is____ter'', Jo van de Loo, Munich *2017: ''Beletage'', GiG Munich, Munich *2018: ''Trophies'', ZiF, Bielefeld *2018: ''Spring Again'', Erlöserkirche, Munich

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Tim 1973 births Living people British expatriates in Germany Artists from Rochdale Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London 21st-century British sculptors 21st-century British male artists 20th-century British painters British portrait painters