Starting in 2017 the gallery began to shadow BIMA’s collaboration with the Within Earshot Jazz Fest by featuring jazz portraits. Our second show, in 2018, featured work by Poulsbo’s Bennett Anderson. Local Jazz luminaries were featured including Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson and Mildred Bailey. This year he returns with a solo exhibit showcasing work from his career featuring a variety of personalities. “Cory Bennett Anderson: Prints and Paintings 2020” opens on First Friday, October 2nd with a reception from 6 to 8 PM. A second event will take place First Friday, November 6th from 6 to 8 PM.
Growing up in Vegas, he was spellbound by the enormity of celebrity names in neon. Taking a cue from his artist Grandma and after studying art and graphic design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, he began to make portraits that combined a graffiti style, found and sometimes random text and textures. His powerful style was rewarded with sales and exhibits. His has shown in art fairs in Shanghai, Miami, Los Angeles and San Diego.
While Mr. Anderson’s collaged images are based on borrowed photographs, the experience of his works is far more complex; the inclusion of carefully selected text screams out to give context and fabric and wallpaper cement add luscious texture to the surface, helping to create a sense of motion.
With Black Lives Matter in our consciousness, The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art has him scheduled for a solo show next summer on the theme of Social Justice. In a preview of that show, Jeffrey Moose is proud to feature his portraits of two giants of Black American history, John Lewis and Booker T Washington.
Watch a charming king5 video featuring his two young children.