Nottingham painter and photographer Thomas Bennet is showing his impressionistic work depicting an uncompromising reality of St Anns, his home place. The exhibition is taking place upstairs at Muse Bar, giving you the chance to grab a drink and soak up the 2D works.
“True Grit” really is an enticing exhibition full of humour and sadness in urban life. Bennet has managed to capture true characters, lofty areas, deserted buildings and clustered terraces, unforgiving of truth’s reality. St Anns is known for it’s social issues, its stock housing, alleyways and short cuts. The grainy black and white photographs Bennet produces draw from this.
Bennet has captured the moments in amongst youth activity, as characters peer in through the lens of the camera. These kids are head-to-toe in products and labels looking bored with gritted teeth.
Stylized paintings scream mid-England edge; it’s urban rage and bland landscapes. Bennet has focused on some known spots like Robin Hood chase and then on descriptive areas such as Christ’s Church, abandoned building with a toppled trolley in the foreground. It seethes wonder, and demands question.
Bennet’s work is that of an outsider artist; think Andrew Litten and L.S Lowry. His work is immensely free and honest, full of a real passion, uncontrolled by art-school restrictions. These works are nuggets of poetry.
True Grit is showing at Muse Bar, Broad Street, Thursday 26 June, 7pm
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