Press Release

Presenting an exceptional new body of paintings, Bennett expands upon his distinctive visual language, drawing together antiquities, pastoral imagery and still-life traditions in a richly imaginative exploration of memory, symbolism and perception.

Historical artefacts, fragments of landscape and symbolic objects are woven together through expressive painterly gestures, resulting in works that are both visually arresting and deeply evocative. Moving fluidly between observation and invention, Bennett constructs captivating pictorial worlds where the familiar and the imagined coexist, creating compositions that invite contemplation and discovery.

Throughout the exhibition, celestial forms, architectural fragments, flowers, vessels and enigmatic figures drift between recognition and abstraction. Objects appear untethered from conventional space and time, forming poetic constellations of meaning that unfold through association rather than narrative.

Neither wholly landscape nor still life, these paintings occupy a liminal territory where memory, mythology and perception converge. Bennett composes immersive visual fields in which disparate elements coexist in delicate equilibrium, encouraging viewers to navigate relationships between past and present, reality and imagination, presence and absence.

Robby Bennett holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours First Class) from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney (2016), and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the National Art School (2015). Following solo exhibitions including The Music They Played Was Flowers at Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane (2025) and Beyond Darkness at CASSANDRA BIRD, Sydney (2024), Bennett has emerged as a very exciting contemporary painter. In 2025, he was awarded both The Vincent Prize and the Georges River Art Prize, and was a finalist in the MAC Yapang Art Prize and Gosford Art Prize. His work is held in public and private collections nationally and internationally.

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About the Artist

Sydney-based artist Robby Bennett’s work has been showcased in a variety of exhibitions. In 2023, he was a finalist in the Georges River Art Prize at the Hurstville Museum in Sydney. That same year, he participated in the ‘Open House’ exhibition at SODA + AHNESS in Adelaide. His previous exhibitions include ‘No Punchline’ at Peach Black Gallery in Chippendale in 2022 and ‘While We’re Still Here, presented at Ambush Gallery in both Canberra and Waterloo in 2021. He also exhibited ‘Manipulated Moments’ at China Heights in Surry Hills and participated in ‘Friends & Family’ at Daine Singer Gallery in Melbourne in 2019. Robby Bennett received the Dean’s Choice Award for his honours year painting at Sydney College of the Arts in 2016 and the John McCaughey Prize for a Graduate Student from The National Art School in 2015. Having presented work in a group exhibition at CASSANDRA BIRD in Jan 2023, Beyond Darkness was Robby’s first solo exhibition at CASSANDRA BIRD, Sydney.

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Also Exhibiting at Cassandra Bird

About the Gallery

CASSANDRA BIRD is a contemporary art gallery with spaces in Sydney and Paris. Working across Australia and Europe, the gallery represents artists whose practices engage with critical, material, historical, and cultural questions, situating their work within broader institutional and transnational contexts, and building sustained connections between practices, histories, and audiences. The gallery draws on deep experience across contemporary art sectors in Asia, Europe, and North America, which shapes a considered approach to working with artists, one focused on long-term development, meaningful institutional relationships, and thoughtful placement. Across its two locations, CASSANDRA BIRD connects artists, institutions, and collections, maintaining a genuine commitment to the artists it represents and the longer arcs of their careers.

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54 Kellett St, Potts Point
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Sydney 54 Kellett St, Potts Point
Cassandra Bird
54 Kellett St, Potts Point, Sydney, Australia
+61 (02) 9161 4213
https://www.cassandrabird.com/

Opening hours
Tuesday-Friday
10am-5pm

Saturday
11am-5pm
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