Gordon Bennett

 
Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) is internationally acclaimed as one of Australia's most significant and critically engaged contemporary artists. He is recognised for his powerful perspectives on the post-colonial experience, particularly in the Australian context, with much of his work mapping alternative histories and questioning racial categorisations and stereotypes. As a way to expand his oeuvre, Bennett regularly adopted the persona “John Citizen.” This invented character existed as a disguise playing with the rhetoric of identity. Moreover, by shifting his artistic style under the John Citizen pseudonym, Bennett avoided typecasting his practice.
Selected solo exhibitions include: “Outsider / Insider: The Art of Gordon Bennett”, The Aboriginal Art Museum (AAMU), Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2012; “Gordon Bennett: a survey”, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, and touring to Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; “The Expiation of Guilt”, Museum of Archaelogy and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK, 2007; “History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett”, Brisbane City Gallery, 1999, and touring to Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway.
Selected group exhibitions include: Berlin Biennale, Berlin, 2014; Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany, 2012; “Afterglow: Performance Art and Photography”, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, 2010; “Cubism and Australian Art”, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2009; “Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009; 16th Biennale of Sydney: “Revolutions-forms that turn”, Sydney, 2008; “Three Colours: Gordon Bennett and Peter Robinson”, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004; 12th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2000; The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1999; “Art-Worlds in Dialogue”, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany, 1999; “In Place (Out of Time): Contemporary Art in Australia”, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK, 1997; “TransCulture”, Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Venice Biennale, Italy, 1995; “Aratjara: Art of the First Australians”, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany, and Hayward Gallery, London, UK, 1993; 9th Biennale of Sydney: “The Boundary Rider”, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1992; and “Paraculture”, Artists' Space, New York, USA, 1990.
Selected awards include Moët et Chandon Australia Art Fellowship, 1991; MacGeorge Fellowship, The University of Melbourne, 1993; Creative Arts Fellow, Australian National University, Canberra, 1996; and John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1997. Bennett's first monograph, The History and Memory of Gordon Bennett, by Ian McLean, was published in 1997.
 
Gordon Bennett - Be Polite
2017
English edition
Sternberg Press - Monographs and artists' books
Be Polite follows the exhibition of largely unseen works on paper by one of Australia's most visionary and critical artists, Gordon Bennett. Including drawings, acrylic/gouache and watercolor paintings, poetry, and essays—the exhibition and publication are the first to present the work of Bennett since his death, and to pay homage to a figure of the post-colonial thought.
topicsGordon Bennett: also present in



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