Offsite Gallery exhibiting artist December 7, 2018 – January 19, 2019 “Knotworks”, a joint exhibition with Reni Gower
“I am an artist thanks to everything that occurred before me. Without the vast communications revolutions that have taken place, my career and the opportunities that make it possible would not exist. Of course, the terrible subjects I draw and paint would not exist either. I meticulously document in graphite, oils or watercolor the tools of terror in the 20th and early 21st centuries. This is a magnificent time in which to live, but it is also threatening and frightening, and I feel a strong responsibility to depict it with classical tools. No, it is not mass communications, but as any of my colleagues will tell you, the intimate, one-on-one encounter with a handmade image is often more powerful than the most horrible depictions on television or the theater.”
– Jorge Benitez
Jorge Benitez has an impressive array of expertise across various disciplines. He is a master in painting, drawing and printmaking. He has a deep understanding of art history and critical theory, communication arts practices, design arts, linguistic arts, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of digital technology. He has also had a career as co-founder and creative director of C5 Communications, an advertising firm specializing in business-to-business accounts. As a fluent French and Spanish speaker he developed advertising and collateral materials for the European and Latin American markets and designed ads for Japanese software publications and packaging for products sold throughout Asia. These qualities combine to make Mr. Benitez a powerful teacher of exceptional quality. His paintings and drawings were included in the prestigious Options Exhibition at the Washington Project for the Arts Corcoran, curated by Dr. Olivia Lumpkin in 2005. His work has been purchased by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for its permanent collection. He has shown his work recently in exhibitions New York City, Seoul, South Korea and Beijing, China.
