2023, Brancacci Art Gallery, Firenze

Koloristerne 2021

Due to Corona, Koloristerne 2021 at Den Frie in Copenhagen, was changed from the planned exhibition to a painting event that adorns the exterior of Den Free building. In addition, a very fine numbered Art Folder has been made in edition 500 with a work from each artist. You can buy the art folder (500 kroner) here at Den Fries Webshop 

I am participating with a work from the series Feet, which you can see a photo of, and there will soon be more works on the webshop from my hand.

You can see the other works in the Feet series here

Drawings of Feet

Until 30 August 2020

Tage Andersen and Gunillaberg Manor are happy to present an exhibition with artists Jørgen Haugen Sørensen and Eli Benveniste, who will display beautiful works in clay and bronze as well as ink on paper.

Gunillaberg is a yellow-painted manor house with gardens and carp pond.

Today, the Copenhagen and internationally known floral artist Tage Andersen owns the small, yellow-painted manor house Gunillaberg in Småland. With its gardens, carp pond and rippling streams, the farm is located in the middle of the forest in the Småland highlands west of Jönköping and is one of Sweden's best-preserved Carolingian farms from the 17th century.

At Gunillaberg, Tage Andersen has created a garden and a cultural center with changing exhibitions, art and cultural events, among others. concerts, theater, opera and ballet. During the summer, Gunillaberg is open to visitors who can experience the magical place.

Schedule a visit by writing to info@tage-andersen.com

31 July - 29 August 2020

Why Feet?

I began doing them already in Portugal last summer - long before we knew anything about the corona virus and the consequences we all would have to deal with.

A work process often begins by with the circumstances we find ourselves in. In this case I had to do smaller sculptures, if I wanted to work in my newly restored studio in Portugal; sizes which later could be transported back to Italy in our car. But I also Liked the idea of looking closely into a specific detail of the body.

But why feet exactly?

To me a foot is a kind of sculpture in itself, it has this particular triangular form, similar to the rhythm a conductor draws in the air, with his beat.

A form who closes upon itself in a very natural way. I discovered that they could be turned upside down, stand, lay and be distorted in every way and be expressive even with a few touches. 

I started with a smaller foot, just the foot itself with no ankle. It became the foot of the Boor bog man or the Tollund man, that was found in bog land after more than 2000 years. Then I did "Blockhead Hans" foot - from the story of H.C. Andersen, a joyful peasant’s foot and after that, the small delicate foot of a Japanese lady having an orgasm, as I had seen on the Japanese prints we have in our bedroom in Portugal. Always the same clenched feet like a fist, so well expressed and not to be misunderstood.

A new piece turned out to be a refugee’s foot; a foot that had walked thousands of miles, tired and hardened and marked by the many steps taken under heavy burdens.

Back in Italy the series evolved in a more imaginative direction. Apparently, it was not necessary to make a whole body, let alone a face, to express a condition or situation, it could all be contained in there, abstract and yet recognizable at the same time.

I squeezed the clay so it took shape from my hands and turned into a kind of a tree, which were followed by some more optimistic and playful feet. Lately I am making ballet feet. As they can’t stand on their own tip toe, I had to make the better half - and they became a pair - an etude. 

The fact they were a pair, suggested some pretty wild compositions and sculpturally that's where it started to get really interesting, because something new, which I hadn’t expected, came up due to pure necessity. And I haven’t finished yet.

Eli Benveniste  2020

Photographer Allan Riech

To see photos of works close up, go to 

"Feet" in collaboration with Paola Raffo Arte Contemporanea in Viale Apua 13 Saturday 11 July 2020, from 12-20 pm

During my years in Pietrasanta I’ve always sent my work directly from my studio to the various exhibitions I have had in Denmark or elsewhere. I have lived and worked in Pietrasanta since the 90's and never once exhibited what I’m doing. Sculpture being such a great part of my life, I think it is time to share them with you.

The exhibition is due to open at Gallery Klejn in Bornholm in Denmark from July 31 - August 31, together with the painter Martin Berge. 

Here in Pietrasanta "Feet" will be shown in collaboration with Paola Raffo Arte Contemporanea and we will be happy to see you in Viale Apua 13 next Saturday 11.07.20 where we will keep the doors open the whole day from 12:00 to 20:00 pm. Paola and I will serve coffee and tea, as well as cool drinks and there will be some snacks, sweet as well as salty.

Still living through Coronatimes, we will make sure masks and sanitiser will be available, and the doors will be open to the garden surrounding the studio. 

The Corona has had such a huge impact on us all, but it also gave me time to work, time to think and perhaps the most important ingredient in all creation, time to do nothing at all, and this void got me started in a new direction.

Looking forward to seeing you and showing you my new works.

Best Eli

Why Feet?

I began doing them already in Portugal last summer - long before we knew anything about the corona virus and the consequences we all would have to deal with.

A work process often begins by with the circumstances we find ourselves in. In this case I had to do smaller sculptures, if I wanted to work in my newly restored studio in Portugal; sizes which later could be transported back to Italy in our car. But I also Liked the idea of looking closely into a specific detail of the body.

But why feet exactly?

To me a foot is a kind of sculpture in itself, it has this particular triangular form, similar to the rhythm a conductor draws in the air, with his beat.

A form who closes upon itself in a very natural way. I discovered that they could be turned upside down, stand, lay and be distorted in every way and be expressive even with a few touches. 

I started with a smaller foot, just the foot itself with no ankle. It became the foot of the Boorebog man or the Tollund man, that was found in bogland after more than 2000 years. Then I did "Blockhead Hans" foot - from the story of H.C. Andersen, a joyful peasants foot and after that, the small delicate foot of a japanese lady having an orgasme, as I had seen on the japanese prints we have in our bedroom in Portugal. Always the same clenched feet like a fist, so well expressed and not to be misunderstood.

A new piece turned out to be arefugee’s foot; a foot that had walked thousands of miles, tired and hardened and marked by the many steps taken under heavy burdens.

Back in Italy the series evolved in a more imaginative direction. Apparently it was not necessary to make a whole body, let alone a face, to express a condition or situation, it could all be contained in there, abstract and yet recognizable at the same time.

I squeezed the clay so it took shape from my hands and turned into a kind of a tree, which were followed by some more optimistic and playful feet. Lately I am making ballet feet. As they can’t stand on their own tip toe, I had to make the better half - and they became a pair - an etudes. 

The fact they were a pair, suggested some pretty wild compositions and sculpturally that's where it started to get really interesting, because something new, which I hadn’t expected, came up due to pure necessity. And I haven’t finished yet.

Eli Benveniste  2020

A THOUSAND AND NO MORE THOUSAND

The end of the world has not yet come, so you have the opportunity to visit the exhibition "BAU | Contemporary Culture Container 2004-2020" which displays MORE THAN THOUSAND WORKS contained in the 16 boxes.

All the artists who have moved from BAU from 2004 to today gathered in the 3 rooms on floor 0 of the CAMeC La Spezia

INAUGURATION 21.02.2020 - 18.00

Exhibition open until 7 June 2020

Eli Benveniste exhibits her work from 2019, The Order of Nature, photogravure on paper, 29.5 x 29.5 cm

Eli Benveniste on The Order of Nature:

The subject is a fractal that can grow infinitely on all sides. I once saw a narrow bite of this pattern on a Roman mosaic from Merida in Spain. It fascinated me because the pattern is recognizable and yet not so. The narrow piece could not be doubled or flipped and it took me most of that summer to figure it out. That it was a fractal with 3-4 simple rules. The white T and the black T must always turn their backs on each other. You must avoid more than 3 black squares in succession of each other diagonally as it becomes too visible. And the T's may not meet at the bottom, but otherwise you can turn and flip them for good. But you have to be focused because it can become more or less beautiful or less beautiful.

I have called it the "Order of Nature" because it has something mathematical about it, and you think that you choose the direction yourself and create the freight speech at the moment within the hard rules. And then there is the ending that can unfold in countless ways.

I used the pattern for a mosaic I made in Portugal and imagine what that Roman thought of his time when he apparently gave up and made a beautiful picture above.

KOLORISTERNE have previously had a solid base on The Free and we are happy to once again have the opportunity to exhibit here, as the place, by virtue of its history and reputation, attracts a large and wide audience. The upcoming exhibition will be important because there is a large generation change coming in the group. We have been fortunate enough to be able to mobilize a new team of very talented and prominent young artists, which will allow us to create a new and unpredictable taste of a Colorist exhibition in the heart of Copenhagen.

But perhaps most importantly, we see the upcoming exhibition as an opportunity and opportunity to pass the baton on to this old Danish cultural institution, the Colorists.

The artist association The colorists represent a piece of unique Danish art history, which we honor to preserve and revitalize with new young talented forces. It is the group's vision that the Colorists must continue to speak to and mirror the contemporary and thus continue to be an important and important mark in the art life of the future, while at the same time the group has the weight of the older artists' experience and insights. With an age difference of almost 70 years from the youngest to the oldest exhibitor, the Colorists represent the entire modern Danish art history in one group. A principle we see as an important strength that we will continue to emphasize in the future.

This year's exhibition offers a variety of media in painting, sculpture, textile, graphic and watercolor.

Eli Benveniste on Tendencies to Clump Together, 2019:

For a long time I have made sculptures according to drawings, they are not only sketches but actual recipes. I read the drawing contour three-dimensionally. The outline of a sculpture from a certain angle. At the same time, there are many possibilities within the framework of a line drawing and the sculptures I show here are variations over the same contour drawing.

When I drew the drawing, my idea was that the front of the body could be read as a back, as if the body had turned, while the "legs" were still coming out from the hips.

I sought a certain spatiality and wanted to express the essence of a movement.

As for the modeling, I thought, how little is needed? Where does the boundary between unrecognizability go to where I have, in fact, gone too far, when the desire to make my idea visible instead gets the first freshness that naturally arises during the construction of a sculpture killed. That's why I released them as soon as possible, when they were just as readable, caught in the moment.

The five sculptures have now been raw-burned in my workshop for two years, without being finished. They were from that time the Colorists no longer had to exhibit on the Free. Now the Colorists are back on and I continue where I left off, and have made two more variations. Those who lacked to complete the series of "Tendencies to Clump together".

Participating artists: Vincenzo Agnetti, Silvia Ancillotti, Anonimo, Roberto Baccelli, Simon Balestrazzi, Luigi Ballerini, Eli Benveniste, Francesco Bernabei, Carla Bertola, Emanuela Biancuzzi, Maicol Borghetti, Maria Luisa Borra, Jean-Francoise Bory, Luca Brocchini, Giuseppe Calandriello, Felipe Cardeña, Mauro Chiarotto, Filippo Ciavoli Cortelli, Claudio Costa, Corrado Costa, Graziano Dovichi, Liliana Ebalginelli, Luciano Federighi, Fernanda Fedi, Giovanni Fontana, Gionata Francesconi, Claudio Francia, Aldo Frangioni, Carlo Galli, Marco Galli, Delio Gennai, Stefano Gentile, Gino Gini, Chiara Giorgetti, Antonio Gomez, Ezio Gribaudo, Riccardo  Gusmaroli, Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, Maria Assunta Karini - Francesco Paladino, Margherita Labbe, Ignazio Lago, Valentina Lapolla - Rachel Morellet - Eva Sauer - Tatiana Villani, Massimiliano Luchetti, Luciano Maciotta, Giorgio Marconi, Gabriele Menconi, Giulia Niccolai, Now! (Roberto Cagnoli - Marco Cencetti), Angela Palese, Lorenzo Paoli, Vieri Parenti, Antonio Peruz, Guido Peruz, Luigi Petracchi, Lamberto Pignotti, Margherita Levo Rosenberg, Rossano Brazzi, Manitù Rossi, Ornella Rovera, Walter Rovere, Kristina Rubine, Stefano Ruggia, Massimo Salvoni, Samora (Enrico Marani), Antonella Sassanelli, Renato Sclaunich, Alvise Simonazzi, Morten Søndergaard, Giulia Spanghero, Adriano Spatola, Alessandro Squilloni, HR-Stamenov, Teho Teardo, Nicoletta Testi, Stefano Turrini, Tommaso Vassalle, Giangrazio Verna, Daniele Virgilio, Alberto Vitacchio, William Xerra, Aida M. Zoppetti, Emiliano Zucchini.

- an exhibition about walking, curated by Morten Søndergaard.

Gl. Holtegaard until March 19, 2006

Works on display at the exhibition by Francis Alÿs, Eli Benveniste, Jens Birkemose, Umberto Boccioni, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peter Brandes, Jesper Christiansen, Torben Christensen, Alberto Giacometti, Marianne Grønnow, Tania Ruiz, Jytte Høy, Frans Kannik, Eva Koch, Christian Lemmerz, Eadweard Muybridge, Øivind Nygård, Bjørn Nørgaard, Julian Opie, Kirsten Ortwed, Robert Storm Petersen, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Jytte Rex, Ane Mette Ruge, John Smith, Beat Streuli, Do-Ho Suh, Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, Laurits Tuxen, Christian Vind, Kassandra Wellendorf, J.F. Willumsen, Mette Winckelmann.

Eli Benveniste's sculpture Fuga was located outside the museum, and unfortunately there are no photos of it. 

Berlingske Tidende Review in Danish

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