Bennett, Jason

Jason Bennett (born 1974, Florida, USA) is a multi-media artist, renowned for his paintings and mixed-media collages that describe landscape and journey. Meandering lines indicating topography and repetition, while floral outlines suggest, but do not illustrate, intimate places and spaces. The result is a body of work not self-conscious about describing specific location or time, but rather concerned with shaping new geographies.

With a mother like Bahamian painter and educator, Sue Bennett Williams, art was a part of everyday life at the Bennett household. Since his mother never pushed art but rather promoted it—making available a well-stocked cabinet of art supplies—Bennett developed a fondness for creative exploration and a desire to maintain a sense of freedom in his creative expression.

This fondness grew into a passion as he pursued visual art first at the College of The Bahamas in 1995 and then, in 1996, at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Initially interested in graphic design, he soon switched over to Fine Art, finding the process of painting to be free of rigid formality, and graduated in 1998 with his BFA in Fine Art.

Soon thereafter, he was offered a position with an American Zoological Association award-winning company in construction in the Bronx, NYC, where he developed an affinity for artistic concrete construction. Jobs followed in Portland, Oregon, and led to a position at their head office in Seattle, Washington, offering artistic support and supervision.

In 2006, Bennett moved back to The Bahamas with these newfound skills and started his own business offering professional construction services in the areas of structural concrete, flat work, commercial and residential artistic shotcrete. It was through this business that he provided a series of artistic concrete pieces in the renovation of Collins House.

Despite owning his own company, Bennett continued to develop his creative process and exhibited extensively in The Bahamas at the Pro Gallery at the College of The Bahamas, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, and the Central Bank of The Bahamas Art Gallery.

With his abstract style, the artist joined a small group of contemporary artists at Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts, working to push the boundaries of contemporary Bahamian art practice. His work placed Bennett squarely in the revolutionary discourse of contemporary Bahamian art.

In 2006, Bennett relocated his family to Seattle, Washington, where he currently lives and works.