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Guy Benfield

Date 
b. 1964
Sydney
NSW
Australia

Guy Benfield was born in Sydney in 1964. An artist with a prodigious creative output including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, performance and video, Benfield's interests and activities are united by a committment to investigating a process of evolutionary change through his art, each new project or piece growing out of a sometimes startlingly organic mutation. His works in video document and extend performances and studio practice with an emphasis on obscure fictions. S,SSW [2012] [aka Lovecraft] features a graphic montage of images including 1980s era photographs of pop musician David Sylvian, Asian food, Chanel logos and computer generated images before seguing into a sequence of Benfield facing camera attempting to lip sync to a playback of a voice reading a story. The video ends with a repeat of the opening montage. My Restaurant Is The Best [2010] is a montage of images of food, restaurants that, like S,SSW, is accompanied by deliberately 'cheesy' synthesiser music.

Benfield has exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Lisbon, New York and Brooklyn. Benfield’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Le CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France; BRIX Gallerie, Berlin; Artspace Sydney, Australia; the Monkey Town Semiennial, New York; the Shanghai Biennale, China; Atelierfrankfurt, Germany; Zacheta National Gallery, Poland; the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania; and Escola Maumaus, Lisbon. Benfield has received grants from the Australia Council for the Arts, Maumaus School for the Arts (Lisbon, Portugal), and Arts Victoria. His work has also been featured in publications such as FriezeFlash Art,NYARTS MagazineArt Review and Art World.

Author 
Andrew Frost
Birth place
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Period of activity 
from 2001
Other solo exhibitions 

Selected solo exhibitions: X VOLTA, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2008. Mother Door Spirit Level, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, New York, 2007. Situation Rendered Obsolete, Vera Cortes Art Agency, Lisbon, Portugal, 2005. 4000 Years of God, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, Go Punk on Their Heads, Greene St Studios Residency New York, 2004. Brazilian Wax Museum, Gertrude Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, 2003.  

Other group exhibitions 

Selected group exhibitions: Monkey Town Semiennial, New York Video Art Review Monkey Town, Brooklyn New York, Full Nelson, BRIXX Gallerie-Büro for Post- Modern Communication, Berlin, Aftermath: Performance as Installation/Installation as Performance, Artspace Sydney, 2007. Satellite, Project of the Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai China, Europaffekt, Atelierfrankfurt, Germany, High Tide: currents in contemporary art from Australia and New Zealand, Zacheta National Gallery Warsaw, Poland, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2006.     

Selected publications:  Australian Culture Now, Flash Art International, 2004, New 04, Frieze Magazine, summer issue, 2004, Brazilian Wax Museum, Gertrude Contemporary Art Space, catalogue, 2003. French Pup / Live Action, C.C.P. catalogue, September 13 2001, Universal Love Action, Review ACCA Mag, no1, 2002. 

S,SW,N,NS,E,EW,SSW,E, – from S,SSW, via Vimeo 
Imbiss Babylon, – from My Restaurant is the Best, via Vimeo 
Die From Jeans, – from Die From Jeans, via Vimeo 
Zebra Wipe, – from Zebra Wipe, via Vimeo 
The Real Her Ft, – from The Real Her Ft, via Vimeo 
The End of Sponti, – from The End of Sponti, via Vimeo