Steven Alan Bennett

Steven Alan Bennett is an art collector who, along with his partner and co-curator, Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, specializes in realist paintings of women by women artists. The Bennett Collection of Women Realists includes works by some of the most exciting women artists working today: Margaret Bowland, Aleah Chapin, Andrea Kowch, Alyssa Monks, Katie O’Hagan, Pamela Wilson and dozens of others on the cutting edge of figurative realism. The Bennetts base their collection on two similar but different beliefs. First, while women painters have produced remarkable work for centuries, they have not received the same degree of acceptance as their male counterparts. Second, in addition to gender discrimination, over the course of time figurative realism has come to be institutionally disfavored in both museums and galleries. These actions have impaired the recognition of women figurative realists and tended to discourage them at the earliest and most critical moments of their artistic careers. The Bennetts, through their collection and The Bennett Prize, seek to address these issues.

Please click here to read his full bio in the About the Bennetts section.

Image credit: Katie O'Hagan, Portrait of the Collectors (detail), 2016, oil on canvas.

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