Statement: I look to my surroundings and make marks to orient myself. Descended from refugees on all sides of my ancestry, I am obsessed with the idea of escapes. Imaginary journeys through paint and virtual worlds offer a way to travel when grounded due to family life, and an alternative to the often harsh reality of the state of the world.
Through drawing, smartphone photography and videography, I take notes and bring the outside inside my studio walls. Photographs of my paintings carry my work into a virtual space, and allow for dramatic expansion of scale. I record video while walking through the virtual paintings.
I pour, brush, wipe, spray, draw on surfaces while watching the video.
Akin to Jane Bennett’s theory of “vital materiality”, the paintings and virtual environments are as alive as real world spaces. Presenting both physical and virtual interpretations of similar images, I am encouraging the experience of painting as an ongoing event.
I want to offer people a way to be so immersed in a world that they can wander and imagine, but can also feel encouraged to explore and meander without a directive to solve or comprehend.
Bio: Philadelphia based artist Arden Bendler Browning creates large paintings, small works on paper, virtual reality (VR) environments, and public art. Her work explores movement, the desire for travel, the effect of digital imagery on perception and memory, and finding wonder and escape through immersive spaces. Her work hovers between landscape and abstraction.
Bendler Browning’s works have been exhibited and collected internationally. Her works are included in several public collections such as the West Collection, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Microsoft art collection, Dream Hotel Nashville, Frost Tower Collection, Toyota, amongst others. Her work is represented by Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia, Galleri Urbane in Dallas, and Tinney Contemporary in Nashville. Press includes The Washington Post, New American Paintings twice (2009 & 2013), The Studio Visit, BMore Art, Nashville Scene, I Like Your Work podcast (with an accompanying catalog), D Magazine, Philadelphia Style Magazine, The Morning News, the artblog, polisblog, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal-Constutition, and Drawing Magazine, among others. Museum exhibitions include the American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Weatherspoon Art Museum, James A. Michener Museum, Swarthmore College, Kutztown University, University of the Arts, West Chester University, Delaware Contemporary, Arlington Arts Center, and more. Public works include "Nonstop" (2017), a commissioned Percent for Art project for the City of Philadelphia at the Philadelphia International Airport, and "Elastic Geography" (2021), a Mural Arts Philadelphia project. She recently completed artist residencies at Interlude Artist Residency in Livingston, NY, and the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland, Canada.
Bendler Browning holds a BFA in Art with honors from Carnegie Mellon University (1997), a Master of Studio Art with high distinctions from Sydney College of the Arts (2000), and an MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art (2003). She has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 2001, with her husband, creative tech programmer Matt Browning, and their three children.
