NinaJohnson

BOOTH D7

Preview 3.03.2011 (Guests of Honor) 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. (VIP) 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Public Hours: 3.03.2011 2 p.m. – 7 p.m., 3.04.2011 – 03.06.2011 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

The “Cat in the Clouds” is a symbol of imaginative free association, representation, childhood and the question of belief. This series of works creates a narrative sequence that follows the rules of the romantic comedy genre in film – the characters will meet, split apart, then finally reunite.

Each of the paintings begins as an interpretation of a film still from a romantic comedy – When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, Sleepless in Seattle, Knocked Up etc.  Elements of film language (the photographic still, the close up) and painting language (color washes, expressionistic line, traced line) are dramatized and placed in an active relationship with each other.

This grouping continues Benedict’s interest in a multivalent approach to painting.  Although the series is designed to be read as a narrative, the “story” will not be played out solely on the surface of the works, but also through a slower accounting of formal relationships.