Stephen Benwell was born in Melbourne in 1953. He received a Diploma of Art from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 1974 and a Diploma of Education from the Melbourne State College in 1976. After 30 years of professional practice as a ceramicist, Benwell returned to study in 2005 to complete a Masters of Fine Art at Monash University.
Read MoreBenwell has exhibited regularly since 1975 in over 30 solo exhibitions in Australia and Japan. He has also participated in many group exhibitions both in Australia and overseas including Australian Contemporary at SOFA, Chicago in 2006; Australian Glass and Ceramic Art at Galerie Ursula Rosenhauer, Germany; and A Secret History of Blue and White, and Asialink exhibition which toured Asia extensively from 2006, finishing at the Jam Factory, Adelaide in 2009. Benwell’s work was most recently seen in Adelaide in Bravura: 21st Century Australian Craft at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2010.
On four occasions, most recently in 2010, Benwell has won the prestigious Sidney Myer Award from the Shepparton Art Gallery, and in 2009, he was awarded the inaugural Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. His work is also included in the collections of the state galleries of South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, as well as the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and numerous public, corporate and private collections worldwide.
In 2013, Heide Museum of Modern Art presented a comprehensive survey of Benwell’s work.
