Manifestation of the Mind

2021

Manifestation of the Mind comprises ten monumental paintings made in 2021 for Knowledge Bennett’s year-long artist residency at Kean University. Executed in a hard-edge minimalist style, the canvases present distinct yet rhythmically related asymmetrical compositions, increasing incrementally in height from one to ten feet. This progression embodies the continuous expansion of consciousness and the irreversible nature of intellectual and spiritual growth.

Layers of matte black acrylic and black diamond dust create surfaces that are simultaneously absorptive and reflective. As viewers move, light refracts and scatters across the paintings, producing shifting luminosity. The spectator’s movement becomes an essential part of each work’s activation.

The series brings together the geometric precision of Hard-Edge Painting, Minimalism’s reduction of form, and the Light and Space movement’s attention to perception and spatial awareness. Bennett transforms the monochrome surface into a site of meditation where the material and immaterial, physical and spiritual, converge.

Through restraint, repetition, and scale, Manifestation of the Mind investigates the relationship between light, matter, and consciousness, inviting viewers not merely to look, but to awaken.