Millie Benson’s recent work begins with tiny planet portraits and expands to depict astronomical objects, celestial events, and regions of the galaxy now accessible through telescopes like Hubble and James Webb. From Louis Daguerre’s 1839 crescent moon image, created using the daguerreotype process, to the latest images captured by the James Webb telescope, Benson delves into astronomical imaging, exploring how humans have imaged and imagined our universe with evolving tools and technologies.

By studying the results of techniques such as long exposure photography and infrared light reflection, Benson creates imagined astronomical places. These astrophotography techniques reveal imagery beyond the human eye’s capability, generating not only data about the universe but also unexpected compositions and color combinations. These images offer fertile ground for inspiration and imagination.

Benson’s work incorporates an intense exploration of color theory, material process, and performative painting, navigating both outer and inner spaces of the body and mind. A luxurious and carefully detailed world is created using large-format marbling techniques, spray paint, fine brushstrokes, stenciled shapes, and delicate layering techniques, which together question the very nature of painting. The paintings are anchored in the organic, repetitive shapes of the universe, while geometric structures symbolize our methods of measuring and understanding these unknown entities. This approach to processing and understanding vast amounts of new data about our universe harkens back to a primitive type of human existence and physical processing, which tends to get lost in our digital intellectual age.

The collage component of Benson’s work serves as a map for the body and mind, inviting viewers to imagine and follow paths to these new spaces.

 Millie Benson is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her paintings and photographs have been shown throughout the United States and internationally. Benson moves fluidly between the mediums and methods of composing photographs and collages to an embodied painting practice. 

Benson periodically curates art shows and projects with an emphasis on artists working in Brooklyn, New York. She maintains a space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which she uses as a painting studio and a venue to host workshops to discuss and explore the creative process with other artists and makers from all walks of life.

Ms. Benson holds a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a master’s degree in fine arts from Hunter College.

To see more of Millie Benson's work https://www.instagram.com/milliebenson/?hl=en