Bridgette Mayer Gallery Presents:
Love Letters, a solo exhibition by Allen Bentley
May 2 – May 27, 2023
Extended Hours & Artist Talk: Friday, May 5, 5 – 7:30pm
Philadelphia, PA – April 4, 2023. Bridgette Mayer Gallery is pleased to announce our next solo show, Love Letters, featuring Allen Bentley. Love Letters will be on view from Tuesday, May 2 to Saturday, May 27, 2023. The galley will host an artist reception and happy hour on Friday, May 5 from 5:00 to 7:30pm in celebration of the exhibition.
Love Letters will be Bentley’s seventh exhibition at Bridgette Mayer Gallery, bringing together new works from his beloved series of dancers, swimmers, classic and racing cars, sailboats, and florals. The paintings in Love Letters continue Bentley’s ongoing meditation on the interactions and motions that span across many different facets of our lives. Bentley believes that the pursuit of real interaction drives much of our relationships, a belief reflected in the warm details and personal touches in his work. This exhibition features new and recent paintings and works on paper, including the return of his popular small-scale paintings featuring dancers and florals. In discussing this latest body of work, Bentley states:
We hope and dream. These paintings are love letters. Notes of dreams from one to another. They are promises and whispers said to ourselves, for ourselves. Thoughts sent into the world to share only what we dare, what we hoped we could say, what we dare not say.
We chase and strive. Movement, speed, wind and waves: these markers of passion, of chased dreams. They are the paths we write of freedom and adventure.
We blossom and bloom. These florals are notes of affection given and taken, longing and having.
We explore and create. Each new direction is an expression of love for ourselves, love for another.
About the Artist:
Allen Bentley’s exploration of motion runs throughout his career. Even his still-lifes in college seemed to shift in place. Using the vehicle of bustling dancers, swimming couples, and now vintage cars made of quick, energetic touches he discusses the dynamic nature of our quest for connection in our lives. Pushing, pulling, flirting, chasing: these are the moments Bentley explores through a flurry of gestural marks.
He received his Masters of Fine Art from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 and his Bachelors of Fine Art from Western Carolina University in 1996. He has exhibited across the country, with solo exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and San Diego. Allen Bentley is represented in Philadelphia by Bridgette Mayer Gallery. He has shown in the Philadelphia International Airport and in Artworks at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2009, Bentley had his first solo museum show at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE.
He teaches Figure Drawing and Drawing at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD and serves as chair of the Christopher Lyon Scholarship selection committee at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bentley lives in Clarksburg, MD with his wife and children.
Exhibition information: Love Letters will be on view from Tuesday, May 2 to Saturday, May 27, 2023 at Bridgette Mayer Gallery. On Friday, May 5, there will be an artist reception and happy hour from 5:00 to 7:30pm at Bridgette Mayer Gallery.
Gallery information: Bridgette Mayer Gallery is free and open to the public. We are located at 709 Walnut Street, 1st Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00am – 5:00pm.
For further information, please contact Julia Carita at: jcarita@bmayerart.com.
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