Manfredi Beninati

Manfredi Beninati
Born	January 11, 1970 Palermo, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Field	Drawing, Painting, Installation, Sculpture

Manfredi Beninati is an Italian artist born in Palermo (Sicily) in 1970. A contemporary figurative painter, his oeuvre also covers installations, drawings, sculpture and collage.

Biography

After dropping out of both law and film school and collaborating with well-known Italian directors, Manfredi Beninati began working as an artist, devoting himself to drawing. He spent some time in Spain and England and, in 2002, when came back to Italy, he began to make sculptures and figurative paintings that drew directly on real or (often) imaginary childhood memories. Beninati first started studying law then switched to film courses in the early 90s while working as an assistant director in the Italian film industry. In 1994 he moved to London where he started working as a visual artist. In 2005 he was selected as one of four artists to represented his country at the 51 Venice Biennale where he received the audience award for the Italian pavilion. In 2006 he was given a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome as part of the Rome Prize. He currently lives and works in Palermo, Rome and Los Angeles where, together with his wife Milena Muzquiz (of Los Super Elegantes) he has founded an experimental theatre group. He is represented by James Cohan Gallery in New York, Tomio Koyama in Tokyo and Galleria Lorcan O'Neill in Rome.

Trivia

• He has collaborated with Turkish fashion designer Rifat Ozbek on a dress commission by fashion bi-annual Another Magazine in 2007.
• His work has appeared in a number of feature films such as, recently, Melissa P. and Flashbacks of a Fool.
• The 2009 album Maboroshi (E. Ishibashi, G. Gebbia and D. Camarda) features two of Beninati's paintings on the front and back covers.

Work

Beninati's paintings and drawings often seem to lack subject and order: through the use of stratification, he seeks a non-hierarchical balance in which all the objects are portrayed on the same plane. Be it a household interior or an imaginary landscape, every sort of setting has the same value and becomes a chance to seek new order. Thanks to his fluid brushstrokes, the artist plays with color gradations and glazes to recreate a rarefied, and sometimes unreal, atmosphere, describing figures that seem to slowly emerge from an often dreamlike, imaginary background. Beninati's pictorial production is intrinsically bound to installations that appear to be deserted sets, spaces that are often inaccessible and that the viewer can only observe through cracks or darkened glass (Venice Biennale 2005, XV Quadriennale of Rome 2008), soliciting a sort of voyeurism which violates the private sphere and the indefiniteness of memory. The artist works elaborate, through drawings, oil colours and installations, fragments of an inner world, with literary and artistic references. Beninati is part of the younger generation of painters, and he makes pictures in a style that plugs right into the international contemporary aesthetic. He is the kind of artist who a lot of younger people could identify with. His paintings are loose and washy figurative dreamscapes that make the viewer feel as if there’s a thick gauze on the surface of the painting and a story book world floating behind it.

In Beninati’s uncanny vision, natural elements penetrate interior spaces in lyric images that transport the viewer into new aesthetic terrain. The artist’s sensitive use of the materials fosters the visual ease essential to those who experience his ephemeral images. These works elicit a fantasy world where man-made places are combined with natural forms, to provide an escape into an arena of sensuous harmony.

The otherworldly nature of this Sicilian artist's soft focus dreamscapes is reminiscent of a childhood of fairytales. Beninati's figurative works reflect a state of innocence that exists behind the subtlety of pastels and candy colours. His paintings depicting children surrounded by flora and fauna seen through layers of light and softly applied colour have been described as "somewhere between Bosch, Renoir and Thomas Kinkead".

The work of this prolific (and skilful) painter orbits around memories of childhood and adolescence. The images are dreamy, sometimes verging on nightmarish, with some details rendered with great precision while others are left out of focus, seemingly smudged out. This is a quality both dreams and memories have in common and it is one which is pleasant and worrying at the same time - it gives these works a certain magnetism.

Solo shows

2011

• "Manfredi Beninati", Cura Project Space, Rome, Italy
• "Le voci di dentro" FPAC, Palermo, Italy

2010

• "Dicembre 2039", Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK

2009

• "Rearranging the Landscapes around", Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2008

• "La natura morta", Max Wigram Gallery, London, U.K.

2007

• “La lettera "f"”, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
• “Flavio and Palermo (in the summer) ”, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
• "A Flavio", Museo Laboratorio, Città Sant'Angelo (PE), Italy

2006

• “Manfredi Beninati”, Galeria Braga Menendez, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2005

• “Rescued works”, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome, Italy
• “Drawing cabinet”, FPAC, Palermo, Italy
• “Manfredi Beninati. New Paintings”, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA

2003

• “Manfredi Beninati”, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome, Italy

Group shows

2011

• "3rd Thessaloniki Biennale", Thessaloniki, Greece
• "When in Rome", ICI Los Angeles and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
• "Outrageous Fortune", Touring Exhibition, Focal Point Gallery/ Hayward Gallery, U.K.
• "Vanitas!", UCLA, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
• "Archive Fever", Open Care, Milano, Italy
• "Premio Maretti", Museo Pecci, Prato, Italy
• "Accademia. Stanze. Persone.", American Academy in Rome, Italy

2010

• "PPS", Riso - Museo Arte Contemporanea di Sicilia, Palermo, Italy
• "Argianas, Beninati, Bradley, Buchler, Hugonnier, Hulusi, White", Max Wigram Gallery, London, U.K.
• "Memento", La Giarina Arte Contemporanea, Verona, Italy
• "I can't feel my face", Royal T art space, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

2009

• "Heaven", 2nd Athens Biennale 2009, Athens, Greece
• "Collaudi", Italian Pavilion, 53 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
• "The Tree", James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, China
• "No more than a point of view", Prague Biennial, Prague, Czech Republic
• "Escaping the dead ends", Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, Turkey
• "Obsession: Contemporary art from the Lodeveans collection", University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K.
• "Collections, December; Atsushi Fukui, Gert&Uwe Tobias, Manfredi Beninati, Masaya Yoshimura", TKG Editions Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

2008

• "Made Up", Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, U.K.
• "Sand", Parrish Museum, Southampton (NY), U.S.A.
• "15th Rome Quadriennale", Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
• "Imaginary Realities ...", Max Wigram Gallery, London,U.K.
• "Dream Therapy", Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York, U.S.A.
• "Passed as present", York Art Gallery, York, U.K.

2007

• "Summer Show", James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
• "Arte italiana 1968-2007. Pittura", Palazzo Reale, Milano, Italy
• "The end begins", The Hospital, London, UK
• “Detour“, The Art Directors Club, New York, USA
• “Open Studios“, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy

2006

• “Negotiating reality“, Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, University of Denver, Denver, USA
• “C’era una volta un re...”, Arcos Museo, Benevento, Italy
• “Figuring the landscape”, Contemporary Art Galleries, Storrs (Ct), USA

2005

• "Altmejd, Beninati, Everberg et Margolis", Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris, France
• “12 painters”, Galleria In Arco, AB+, Turin, Italy
• Padiglione Venezia at Giardini, 51 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2004

• “Between the lines”, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
• “Expander”, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
• “Summer show”, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome, Italy
• “Wall Paper”, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy

2003

• “Dirty pictures”, The Approach Gallery, London, UK
• “Quadriennale di Roma-Anteprima”, Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy
• “Roma 2003”, Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy
• “Le collezioni – Recenti acquisizioni”, MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Rome, Italy

2002

• “Www.plot@rt”, Rome, Italy

Awards

2010

• Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship

2006

• Rome Prize , American Academy in Rome

2005

• Audience award – Italian pavilion, 51 Venice biennale

2004

• Darc Prize for young Italian art

Selected bibliography

• Giusi Diana, "Manfredi Beninati. Le voci di dentro", Il Giornale dell'Arte, 2011
• Diego Marras, "Case. Il lavoro del tempo: Manfredi Beninati", Chiodo Fisso, RAI Radio3, 2011
• Lowenna Waters, "Interview with Manfredi Beninati", The White Review, 2011
• Gema Melgar, "Manfredi Beninati: El arte nos revela misterios, la filosofia trata luego de explicarnoslos", Esfera Critica, 2011
• Raimundas Malasauskas, "Conversation", Nero Magazine, 2011
• Giovanni Iovane, "Archive Fever", Exibart, 2011
• P. Nicita, "Le voci di dentro dipinte da Beninati", La Repubblica, 2011
• A. Golovkov, "Labyrinth: the artist Manfredi Beninati", Peremeny, 2011
• Giuseppe Blando, "Le voci di dentro alla galleria Pantaleone", Cassaroute, 2011
• "Work of the week: Manfredi Beninati", Rich Pepper, 2010
• Lowenna Waters, "Manfredi Beninati: Dicembre 2039", Haus Magazine, November 2010
• "Manfredi Beninati: Dicembre 2039", Cura Magazine, 2010
• William Sansom, "Video-interview: Manfredi Beninati. Dicembre 2039", Max Wigram Gallery, 2010
• S. Troisi, "Il museo RISO indaga sul contemporaneo", La Repubblica, 2010
• M. F. Kittler, "Manfredi Beninati. Dicembre 2039", ArtRabbit, 2010o TV 2010
• Raffaella Guidobono, "Manfredi Beninati, video-intervista", Nautoscopi
• Mike Brennan, "Identity in transformation: Italian contemporary art", Modern Edition, 2010
• Pier Paolo Pancotto, "Arte Contemporanea dal Minimalismo alle Ultime Tendenze", Carocci Editore, 2010
• Luigi Meneghelli, "Memento", Exhibition Catalog 2010
• W. A. Kościelniak, "the Inner Child", Kiabakari Snippets, 2010
• F. Mastrolilli, "Tornare ad Arévalo", il Foglio 2010
• Paolo Manazza, "Appendere al muro un capitale", Corriere della sera 2010
• Lea Mattarella, "100 Artisti da comprare: Manfredi Beninati", Arte, Giorgio Mondadori 2010
• Daniele Perra, "A spasso tra le gallerie più cool di Londra", Luxury de il Sole 24 Ore, 2010
• Harriet Häussler and Aeneas Bastian, "Aus Künstlersicht – According to the Artists", Kerber Verlag 2009
• Monica Pignatti Morano, "Le Collezioni 1958-2008, Catalogo generale del MAXXI _ Manfredi Beninati", Electa 2009
• Layla Bloom, "Obsession, Contemporary Art from the Lodeveans Collection" (Catalog), University of Leeds Press 2009
• Silvia Pegoraro, "Catalogo dei viventi", Marsilio editore, 2009
• "The 20 Azzurri at the Venice Biennale", Inside Art Magazine, 2009
• Francesca Felletti, "Interurbana: al telefono con Manfredi Beninati", Urban Magazine, #77, 2009
• A. Troncone, "Catalogue of the S.A.C.S. Archives 2009 - Manfredi Beninati, Skira 2009
• L. Beatrice e B. Buscaroli, "Padiglione Italia", L'uomo Vogue, 2009
• Nadia Argiropoulou, "Heaven - Manfredi Beninati", Catalog of 2nd Athens Biennale 2009
• Jennifer Higgie, Dan Fox and Barbara Casavecchia, "Written on water", Frieze 2009
• Beatrice Buscaroli, "Padiglione Italia. Collaudi - Biennale di Venezia", Silvana Editore, 2009
• "Prague Biennale 4", Catalog, Politi Editore, 2009
• Laura Larcan, "Fare mondi, la Biennale di Venezia non si lascia spaventare dalla crisi", la Repubblica, 2009
• AAVV, "Biennale di Venezia: gli artisti di "Collaudi"", XL de la Repubblica, 2009
• Salvatore Bellavia, "Incontro con Manfredi Beninati", Cura Magazine, 2009
• Arika Suminaga, Satoko Hamada "Manfredi Beninati, Interview 2009, TKG Tokyo, 2009
• Richard Cork , "Liverpool unleashed", Financial Times, 11 October 2008
• Christopher Brown, "To Think Of Something peers into another world", Metro London, 28 September 2008
• Rachel Campbell-Johnston, "Biennial at Liverpool", The Times, 22 September 2008
• Richard Dorment, "Liverpool Biennial: 'Made Up'", The Daily Telegraph, 22 September 2008
• David Smith, "It’s a long way from incey-wincey", The Observer, 21 September 2008
• Alfred Hickling, "Liverpool Biennial: a guide to avoid going round in circles", The Guardian, September 2008
• Michael Glover, "Magical mystery tour: The Liverpool art biennial", The Independent, 20 September 2008
• Sorcha Carey, "Manfredi Beninati", Liverpool Biennial Catalog, September 2008
• Natalie Liechti, "Manfredi Beninati: La Natura Morta", Flavorpill, September 2008
• Jennifer Landes, "So Many Grains of Meaning at the Parrish", The East Hampton Star, 12 August 2008
• Emily Verla Bovino, "15th Quadriennale of Rome", Artforum, August 2008
• Lea Mattarella, "La carica dei cento alla Quadriennale", La Stampa, 7 July 2008
• Gabrielle Selz, "Shifting Sands", Newsday, July 2008
• Julie Cirelli, "Manfredi Beninati", in Tema Celeste, July/August 2007
• Laura Barreca, "Manfredi Beninati: the painter of dreamland", in NYarts, Sept/October 2007
• Gianluca Marziani, "The eden of memories", in Numèro Beautè, July/August 2007
• Mary Hrbacek, "Manfredi Beninati: Flavio and Palermo", in NYarts, May/June 2007
• Norma Mangione, "Artist on a bet - Interview with Manfredi Beninati", in UOVO #13, May 2007
• E. S., "Parallel Worlds", in Domus, May 2007
• Franco Speroni, "Manfredi Beninati, Giuseppe Stamponi" in Extrart, April 2007
• "Goings On About Town: Manfredi Beninati", in The New Yorker, 13 March 2007
• Roberta Smith, "Manfredi Beninati at James Cohan Gallery", in The New York Times, March 2007
• R. C. Baker, "Best in show: Manfredi Beninati", in The Village Voice, February 2007
• Laura Laurenzi, "E dove sono i Sette Colli? la vacanza romana di Laura", La Repubblica, 2007
• Susanna Bianchini, Arcos: C'era una volta un re..., in Teknemedia, Ottobre 2006
• C'era una volta un re... - Manfredi Beninati, exhibition catalogue, October 2006
• Matthew J. Westerby, "Negotiating Reality", Exhibition catalog, September 2006
• Figuring the landscape at Contemporary Art Galleries, in ArtDaily, Sept.2006
• Lisa Paul Streitfeld, Landscape with a difference – A mesmerizing, surprising exhibition by eight artists at Uconn Galleries, in Art Review, sept. 2006
• Francesco Stocchi, "Manfredi Beninati", in Flash Art n.259, Aug/Sept. 2006
• "Manfredi Beninati articles and reviews", James Cohan Gallery
• Nicholas Cullinan, "Manfredi Beninati", in Contemporary Annual
• Tobias Verlende, "La Biennale", in NY Arts, Jan/Feb 2006
• Jonathan Turner, "Reviews: Manfredi Beninati", in ARTnews n.10, Nov. 2005
• Nicholas Cullinan, "Manfredi Beninati", in Tema Celeste n.112, Nov/Dec. 2005
• Francesco Stocchi, "Manfredi Beninati" ,in Art Forum, Sept. 2005
• Alexander Kotlomanov, "This is so contemporary, contemporary, contemporary!", NoMI Magazine - #3, 2005
• Elena del Drago, "L'arte penetra nell'emotività domestica", in Il Manifesto, 28 Aug. 2005
• Thomas Wulffen, "Die aktuelle Zeitschrift für alle Bereiche der Bildenden Kunst", Kunstforum International, 2005
• Marcello Smarrelli, "Reviews: Manfredi Beninati", in Flash Art, Jul/Aug 2005
• Javier Hotoria, "Las naciones del arte. 51 bienal de Venecia:Pabellones", in El Mundo (El cultural), 16–22 June 2005
• Pier Paolo Pancotto, "La memoria sottotraccia nelle sculture di Beninati",in L'Unità, 3 June 2005
• Silvia Pegoraro, "I misteri fiabeschi di Manfredi Beninati", in Il Messaggero, 2 June 2005
• Paolo Colombo, "Quattro opere per il MAXXI", Venice Biennale catalogue, Ed. Electa 2005
• Ludovico Pratesi, "Fuga dalla realtà, Venice Biennale catalogue", Ed. Electa 2005
• Mariuccia Casadio, "Grow a mushroom", in Vogue Italia, Sept.2005
• Beatrice Buscaroli, "Generazione invisibile", Venice Biennale catalogue, Ed. Electa 2005
• Lavinia Filippi, "Manfredi Beninati", in Exibart on Paper, Mar. 2005
• JJ Charlesworth, "After the Flood". In “Expander”. Catalogue. London, 2004
• Laura Barreca, "Expander alla Royal academy of Art di Londra", in Arte e Critica, n. 40 Oct/Dec. 2004
• Riccardo Notte, "Tra senso e sensorio". In “XIV Esposizione Quadriennale d’Arte di Roma. Anteprima”, De Luca Editore, 2004
• Gianluca Marziani, "Uno sguardo oltre la modernità", in Lo Specchio de La Stampa, 10 Jan. 2004
• Laura Barreca, "Generazione lo(w)-fi. Artisti italiani a “bassa fedeltà”", in Arte e Critica, n. 38 Apr/June 2004
• Beatrice Buscaroli, "Un’anteprima di pittori e di pittura", Il domenicale, 4 Mar. 2004
• Emilia Giorgi, "Manfredi Beninati", in “Le Collezioni. Acquisizioni di arte contemporanea. MAXXI”, 2003
• Patrizia Ferri, "Manfredi Beninati", in Flash Art, Aug/Sept. 2003
• Lea Mattarella, "La quadriennale si veste di nuovo e si divide per tre", in La stampa, 14 Nov. 2003
• Pier Paolo Pancotto, "Manfredi Beninati, Ricordi soffusi di paesaggi", in L’Unità, 20 Jul. 2003
• Gianluca Marziani, "Manfredi Beninati plasma l’arte sul tavolo da cucina", in La Stampa - Roma, 28 giugno 2003
• Ludovico Pratesi, "Quelle luci surreali sulle tele di Beninati", in La Repubblica - Roma, 17 Jul. 2003
• Laura Barreca, "Manfredi beninati", in Exibart, June 2003
• Lorcan O’Neill, "Manfredi Beninati", in Dizionario della Giovane Arte Italiana 1, May 2003
• Gianluca Marziani, "Manfredi Beninati", in Catalogo della mostra "Www.plot.@rt". Nov. 2002

External links

• FLICKR IMAGES
• Manfredi Beninati website
• Manfredi Beninati's ARTFACTS paga
• Manfredi Beninati on JAMES COHAN GALLERY website
• GALLERIA LORCAN O'NEILL website
• Beninati on MAX WIGRAM GALLERY website
• TOMIO KOYAMA website
• LODEVEANS COLLECTION
• ManfrediBeninati on LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL official website
• From Chinese Wedding Cakes to Manfredi Beninati
• Manfredi Beninati on RE-TITLE.com

Persondata
Name	Beninati, Manfredi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 January 1970
Place of birth	Palermo, Italy
Date of death
Place of death