Jennifer Anne Bennett grew up in Lemon Grove, California. She earned an AA from Grossmont College, a BA from San Diego State University, and an MFA in Painting from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. She enjoys learning about and from her students at Grossmont College, where she has been a Professor of Art since 2006. Jennifer is a painter and printmaker. She also enjoys gardening, cats, practicing pilates, and serving on her community council. She is married to artist John Brinton Hogan.  

Statement

Bennett’s paintings are united by light, atmosphere, creating a space to enter, daydream, or encounter the unexpected. They are ambiguous landscapes where the viewer may bring a history, narrative, or memory to the works. There is an instinctive sense of place: ground and sky, forest and clouds, branches and boulders, all symbols rendered in poetic and quiet perception.  

We yearn to experience the sublime, a personal connection to nature, and to find solace in its grounding presence. Traveling to it, hiking through it, or sleeping under it, there is something primal in our hunger for communion with the natural world: towering trees in a dense forest, wildflowers in the countryside, a cliff face illuminated by the rising sun, forever seeking the infinite beauty of the wilderness surrounding us.

CV

b. 1974 Honolulu, HI.  Lives in San Diego, CA

Education

2001   MFA   Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
                     Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy
1998    BA    San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

Select Exhibition Record

2025               

Spring: the group show, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla

Best Practice Auction and Fundraiser, Best Practice

San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, Into the Woods: Resplendent

Fig 15, Art Produce Gallery, San Diego

Sip Art Space, The Forests of La Sarthe

Dear LA, Love SD, Quint Gallery, Good Good Things

2024                

Grossmont Open, Hyde Art Gallery, Indiana Woods I & II

2023                

Boundaries Edge, Techne Art Center

The Last Group Show, Bread and Salt

2022                

A Map Project, 60 Artists 60 Maps, City Gallery, San Diego City College

2021                

Best Practice, Auction Fundraiser, San Diego

2020                

Campus Creatives: From the Classroom to the Museum, California Center for the Arts, Escondido

2019                

C-Note, Auction, San Diego Art Institute

2018

You Are Here, San Diego Central Library

Campus Creatives: from the classroom to the museum, California Center for the Arts, Escondido

Feminism Now, Shoebox Gallery, Los Angeles and Krogen Amerika, Stockholm, Swededn

2017

Nasty Women, Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA

All Natural, San Diego State University Downtown Gallery

Fiesta of Prints and Bookmaking, Athenaeum Art Center, San Diego, CA

2016   
Feminism Now, Gallery D, San Diego, CA
Art Auction and Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Wouldn’t it be nice… Selections from San Diego, H Gallery, Mesquite, TX
MAS Attack 11, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA   
2015   
Cuts and Links: Bhavna and Friends, The Rose Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
Monotypes: Jennifer Anne Bennett, Bay Park Press, San Diego, CA
2014       
Labor Migrant Gulf 2, Uri Eichen Gallery, Chicago, IL
Object Object!!, Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA
Labor Migrant Gulf, Southwestern College Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
2013   
15 Minutes of Fame, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Gift, Feminist Imagery Group, San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, CA
Altered Horizons, Art Produce, North Park, CA
Object Object!, Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA
2009   
Trade Show, California – Turkey, San Diego, Los Angeles, Turkey
2007   
OMA Regional 5: Oceanside Museum of Art Juried Exhibition, Oceanside, CA
Painting, Works by Jennifer Bennett and Robin Bright, Hyde Art Gallery, El Cajon, CA

Bibliography

2017                

Fiesta of Prints, Athenaeum Art Center (catalog)
2016       
Feminism Now, Gallery D, San Diego, CA (catalog)
Under Pressure: printmaking today, Hyde Art Gallery, curator, (catalog)
2015        
Ross, Andrew, Gulf Labor: High Culture, Hard Labor, OR Books 2015
56th Venice Biennale, The Arena Plan, Gulf Labor. “A New Wave of Arts Activism?” slide presentation on Gulf Labor West, August 5, 2015, Venice, Italy
2014       
Object Object!!: A Selection of Smaller Works, Helmuth Projects (catalog)
Chute, James. “Artists and Workers Unite”. UTSanDiego.com. March 12, 2014
Perez, Andrew, Southwestern Sun, “Gatekeeper’s Children,” Feb. - April 2014
Bittar, Doris, "Bi-Cultural Settlements: Gulf Labor and Global Solidarity,” Project Muse, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol 42, Nos 3-4, Fall/Winter 2014, pp 253-266
2013       
Object Object!: A Selection of Smaller Works, Helmuth Projects (catalog)
2010       
Takas Sergisi/ Trade Show, Kultur Merkezi Mithatpasa Sanat Galerisi (catalog)
2006     
Koppman, Debra. “Jennifer Bennett and Robin Bright.” Artweek. December 2006
2005     
Kromer, MaryAnn, “Paintings portray possibility, potential.” Advertiser-Tribune. 30 October 2005
2001       
McGilvery, Kelly. “The fragile beauty of art in war (as inspired by a garlic painting).” Dialogue. November/ December 2001, p. 80
Langston, Bonnie. “Waxing Artistic.” Daily Freeman. 13 September 2001, p. D1
“Event Briefs; Encaustic Works 2001.” Blue Stone Press. 7 September 2001
Lane, Dakota. “Ancient encaustics and modern movies; the art that remains.” Art Box, Almanac. 27 September 2001, p. 5
Encaustic Works 2001, Muroff-Kotler Arts Gallery (catalog)
1999   
Pincus, Robert L. “Full Steam Ahead: Street People; Taking Art to the Public was a Major Wake-Up Call for the City.” The San Diego Union-Tribune. 16 September 1999, Night & Day: p. 34
Pincus, Robert L. “Floating Images: emblems and relics are the backdrops for two exhibitions.” The San Diego Union-Tribune. 18 May 1999, Night & Day: p. 53