Engage, Enlighten and Inspire -
I remember the first time I saw a piece by Knowledge Bennett. It wasn’t in a galley or show, but instead it was in a beautiful modern home. The color, bold imagery and repetitive pattern drew me in. It was as if the piece just belonged here amongst the lines of the architecture, amongst the wealth but at the same time there was a social message. I was in love.
Discover Knowledge
Knowledge Bennett is a Los Angeles–based artist best known for his signature style that fuses pop art with contemporary and historical imagery. His provocative hybrid painting of Chairman Mao Zedong and Donald Trump was featured in the Chinese edition of New York Times. Bennett's work has been illustrated and discussed in publications including Vogue and the Huffington Post and exhibited internationally at art fairs including Art Basel
Knowledge Bennett studio, Los Angeles, 2016, courtesy of Julien's Auctions.
I’ve always thought it to be the responsibility of an artist to help restore a degree of dignity, integrity, and sense of humanity. At the core of my practice, I seek to engage, enlighten and inspire.”
- Knowledge Bennett
Bennett is a self-taught artist from Asbury Park, New Jersey. In 2014, he relocated to Los Angeles. The subject of Bennett's art often surrounds appropriated photographs of famous creatives that he alters in different ways to emphasize social issues, like racism and identity politics, that plague American society. His production techniques, use of the same image in serial repetition, and even some of the images themselves, are inspired by Andy Warhol.
LA-based artist, Knowledge Bennett at Joseph Gross Gallery
"Orange Is The New Black" at Joseph Gross Gallery explored the African diaspora, critiquing the treatment of the Black American Community by the American government throughout history.
Images of historical figures such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and J Edgar Hoover, appear on “prison jumpsuit orange” canvases, chronologically identifying and offering a critique of unjust practices dating back as early as the 1930's, through to present day.
"Orange Is The New Black is like a magnifying glass, placed directly over the long term relationship between the American Gov't and the Black Community. A relationship where corruption, oppression, and systematic disenfranchisement is all too familiar.”
- Knowledge Bennett