Philip Bennetta

"My work is research-based. I use commonplace materials, together with paint, text, film and sound to respond to place, environment, folklore and memory; each work an artefact in an ongoing process.This is basically my set of rules, which at times I decide to break."



Philip Bennetta is an English artist, poet and psychologist who has also lived and worked in France and South America. In the late nineteen sixties he became attracted to an interdisciplinary approach to the arts, which continues today, featuring a considered inclusion of subjects, styles, materials and techniques together with the blurring of traditional boundaries. His work relates to place, fragment, folklore and memory and is essentially poetic, inspired by E.E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot and Arte Povera. His poetry has appeared in a range of literary journals, anthologies, collections, films and broadcasts. He is married to the visual artist Susan Bennetta and their home and studios are in Walmer, Deal, Kent.

He was awarded a bursary for advanced studies at Dartington College of Arts, into an interdisciplinary approach to the Arts, where his music teacher was Imogen Holst. He also studied Contemporary Arts at Christ Church College, Canterbury, Fine Art at the Kent Institute of Art & Design and holds BA and MA degrees, together with research and professional qualifications in psychology and organisational development.

The Poetry Library Exhibition Collection London, Royal Festival Hall, London, 1994 to present

Insight Out group exhibition Canterbury, 1998

Festival of Arts Challock, Kent, UK 1999

Suburbia Plot 27 collaborative installation with Susan Bennetta Canterbury, UK 1999

Open Studio joint exhibition France, 2000

Open Studio joint exhibition Whitstable, 2000

Fine Art Media Show Canterbury, 2000
Herbert Read Gallery, Kent Institute of Art & Design

Arts Foundation Sandwich, Kent, UK 2000

Poetics group exhibition Folkestone, 2001
Georges House Gallery

Arts Foundation Sandwich, Kent, UK 2001

English Heritage Sandwich, Kent, UK 2001

Artists Open House Canterbury Festival 2001

‘Approaching and’ Canterbury, Kent, 2002

Festival of Arts ...