Michael J. Benari
B.A. Columbia, New York
Benari lives and works in Boston and New York.
In photography Benari explores the border between representation and abstraction. He works in black and white using film and digital cameras.
Benari also creates abstract works on paper (Fabriano and Khadi) using oil paint stick, charcoal and acrylic paint.
Benari draws inspiration from the history and tradition in photography and painting, with particular interest in Siskind, Serra and Soulages.
EXHIBITIONS
- Group show “Seen/Unseen” New England Art Center, TAG June 2026
- Group show at FPAC Art Space (fortpointarts.org) Aug 13- Oct 31, 2025
- “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Group show at New England Art Center at TAG 2025
- “The Alchemy of Art and Play”. Group show at New England Art Center at TAG 2024
- “TranS…FORMATION: in the pursuit of reinvention” Group show at New England Art Center at TAG 2024
- Member artist in the Corporate Art Loan Program at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum 2022
- “Dark Matter” group show at the Atlantic Wharf Gallery in Boston, MA, from April 7-June 28, 2019
- “Dark Matter” solo exhibition at the Focus Gallery of the Rhode Island Photo Arts Center, Providence, RI, opening Jan 17 through February 15, 2019.
- “Reality Deconstructed” solo show at Leica Gallery Boston, opening Jan 4, 2018
- Work from the Berlin Holocaust Memorial shown at the Leica Gallery Boston booth at the Boston Art Book Fair, October 2017. Book signing takes place Oct 22, 2017 at the Mills Gallery, Boston
- “New Mexico Diptychs” on view February 2017 at 555Gallery in Boston, MA
- “Manhattan Project” on view at Outpost186, Cambridge, MA. Nov, Dec 2016
- “Paris 2015” featured on Artnet.com by Donna Leatherman, LLC
- Red Filter Gallery, New Jersey, “Manhattan Project,” September 1-30, 2015
- Alfred Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2 person show, February 2015
- AIPAD New York 2013, Featured at the Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York
- Group show “Off the Beaten Path,” Robert Anderson Gallery, New York, 2012
- Solo show “Kind of Blue,” Red Filter Gallery, Lambertville, NJ July 2011
- BW Gallerist, voted “Best of 2010”
- Group show “Gateway to New Visions,” Accidental Gallery, Boston, MA, 2009
- Photography Resource Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Silent Auction, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
- Danforth Museum, Massachusetts, Photography Biannual, 2007
- Photography Resource Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Live Auction, 2006
- Danforth Museum, Massachusetts, Members’ Juried Exhibition 2006