Louise Benton | Up and Down Cherubs, 2024
Monotype
Media Dimensions: 76 x 57 cm
Image Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm
Unique Work
Framed Only
Louise Benton (b.1995) uses the visual language of catholicism to tell contemporary stories of sexuality and pleasure. Alongside a practice of painting, stained glass and sculpture, Benton’s prints are imaginings of a divine that speaks to and accepts the contemporary woman, liberating cherubs and heavenly iconography from their censored and repressed history, and placing them in a world where pleasure and freedom is valued more than chastity and control. Cherubs are featured heavily in paintings of divine spaces, surrounding and bearing saints and martyrs, but it’s usually the image of Cupid they are associated with, mischievously shooting golden arrows and tugging on the heart strings. In Benton’s work, their image is a meeting of the naughty and the nice: a more realistic symbol than the polarity of virgin or whore, good or bad, light or dark. She holds an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art and an MA History of Art from the University of Edinburgh. Benton has shown recently at Greatorex Street, Whitechapel and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Monotype
Media Dimensions: 76 x 57 cm
Image Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm
Unique Work
Framed Only
Louise Benton (b.1995) uses the visual language of catholicism to tell contemporary stories of sexuality and pleasure. Alongside a practice of painting, stained glass and sculpture, Benton’s prints are imaginings of a divine that speaks to and accepts the contemporary woman, liberating cherubs and heavenly iconography from their censored and repressed history, and placing them in a world where pleasure and freedom is valued more than chastity and control. Cherubs are featured heavily in paintings of divine spaces, surrounding and bearing saints and martyrs, but it’s usually the image of Cupid they are associated with, mischievously shooting golden arrows and tugging on the heart strings. In Benton’s work, their image is a meeting of the naughty and the nice: a more realistic symbol than the polarity of virgin or whore, good or bad, light or dark. She holds an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art and an MA History of Art from the University of Edinburgh. Benton has shown recently at Greatorex Street, Whitechapel and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Monotype
Media Dimensions: 76 x 57 cm
Image Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm
Unique Work
Framed Only
Louise Benton (b.1995) uses the visual language of catholicism to tell contemporary stories of sexuality and pleasure. Alongside a practice of painting, stained glass and sculpture, Benton’s prints are imaginings of a divine that speaks to and accepts the contemporary woman, liberating cherubs and heavenly iconography from their censored and repressed history, and placing them in a world where pleasure and freedom is valued more than chastity and control. Cherubs are featured heavily in paintings of divine spaces, surrounding and bearing saints and martyrs, but it’s usually the image of Cupid they are associated with, mischievously shooting golden arrows and tugging on the heart strings. In Benton’s work, their image is a meeting of the naughty and the nice: a more realistic symbol than the polarity of virgin or whore, good or bad, light or dark. She holds an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art and an MA History of Art from the University of Edinburgh. Benton has shown recently at Greatorex Street, Whitechapel and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
