Oliver Benoit is a pre-eminent Caribbean Abstract Artist who creates powerful works exploring identity. The art evokes a fresh fusion of expression and hope-filled sadness which permeates the region.
Benoit creates visually encapsulating paintings in oil, acrylic and encaustic, covering a broad range of cultural, sociological, and philosophical allusion. He also creates audio, videos, and installations. As a master storyteller about the frontier of slavery, colonialism, post-colonialism, revolution, immigration, invasion, and evolution — the work is heavily textured, layered with paint, text, and historical ephemera such as crushed bricks, hessian, and newsprint. It represents a new dialogue about remembrance and memory loss, similarities and differences, plus alternative perspectives, an insight into ritual, rites, and traditional Caribbean norms.
His art is driven by the desire to understand the conflicting identities, societal frustrations and life’s complexities in his homeland, Grenada. Benoit’s artworks juxtapositions taboo subjects with intense colour, intrinsic beauty and sustainable materiality. Oliver’s ideas position simple everyday objects to probe the meaning of high culture and symbolism while exploring the social and cultural reality of religion and violence.
Oliver Benoit began his career as a landscape and still life painter before devoting his time to the abstract genre. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.F.A. degree in Studio Art. Oliver Benoit is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at St. George’s University.
CAREER
Oliver Benoit displaying his Shakespeare Mas’ Whipping The Mind at the Grenada Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2022