Gregory Bennett Bio
Gregory Bennett is a New Zealand-born and based digital artist who explores conceptions of the utopian and dystopian through representations of the multiplied digital body. He utilises the medium of 3D animation software as his primary creative tool in a creative practice which encompasses video, motion capture, projection mapping, interactive media and virtual reality. His works are exhibited as projection or screen-based work in art galleries and large-scale outdoor public venues, as online work, or as part of curated screening programmes. He is represented by Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Bennett’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the USA, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and Europe. Notable exhibitions include real-fake.org.2.0, a 2016 survey of digital artists at the BronxArtSpace, New York; the 2019 and 2021 Rencontres Internationales, New Cinema and Contemporary Art in Paris and Berlin; the juried exhibition at the 2016 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Hong Kong; the 2017, 2018 and 2020 Supernova Digital Animation Festival in Denver, USA; and the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, Australia. He was a finalist in the 7th Screengrab International Media Arts Award in Australia in 2015 and was selected for Narracje 2013, Installations and Interventions in Public Space in Gdansk, Poland, and the Video Contemporary exhibition at the 2015 Sydney Contemporary International Art Fair. His video work was also paired with Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons print series for a show at AALA Gallery, Los Angeles in 2018. His work has also been selected for Currents 2014, the Santa Fe International New Media Festival, USA; SIMULTAN Festival for Video, Media Art, Exploratory Music and Sound 2014, Timisoara, Romania; Prak-sis n3w M3dia Art Festival 2014, Chicago, USA; TEMP Art Space, New York; ISEA 2012 in Alberquerque, New Mexico, USA.
His first film involving motion capture and dance, a collaboration with dancer and choreographer Dr. Jennifer Nikolai was accepted to screen at several international Film Festivals in 2015 including the 44th Dance on Camera Festival, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, the American Dance Festival’s 2015 International Screendance Festival, and the Edmonton International Film Festival.
His work has also featured in public art galleries in New Zealand and Australia including Auckland Art Gallery, Tauranga Art Gallery, Digital Art Live Auckland, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, the Gus Fisher Gallery, Rotorua Museum, Artspace, Experimenta in Melbourne, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. His work is also is represented in the collections of Auckland University, Chartwell, Jennifer B. Gibbs and James Wallace as well as private collections in New Zealand and Australia.
He has a Masters degree from the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand and has been teaching at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in the School of Art and Design since 2011 where he established the first courses in motion capture. He is currently Head of Department for Digital Design and Visual Arts at the AUT School of Art and Design, and also Director of AUT Motion Capture Lab.