Francisco Benitez

Francisco Benítez (b. 1967) was raised in New Mexico, New York, and Spain. His mother, a flamenco dancer and choreographer, and his father, a Spanish set designer, influenced his subsequent interest in tenebrist painting and baroque art. Benítez studied Classics at St. John’s College (Santa Fe), and then academic painting techniques and anatomy/figure drawing at the Art Student’s League in New York City. Benítez subsequently obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico, during which time he studied abroad at the Facultad de Bellas Artes in Granada, Spain, through an exchange program, and later did graduate-level independent study.

Benítez lived in Southern France for over four years, during which he participated in a number of museum shows. He exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de Nice, and co-organized, curated, and participated in an exhibition featuring cutting-edge New Mexico artists at the Musée Denys-Puech in Rodez, France. Benítez also had several one-person and group shows in Southern France as well as in Paris.

At present, Benítez divides his time between Europe and Santa Fe. His active exhibition schedule in the US is enhanced by projects in France and Italy. In 2002 he had a one-person exhibition in Messina, Sicily, accompanied by a catalog, as well as another exhibition in 2006 held at the Monastero del Ritiro in Syracuse, Sicily, in conjunction with the Festival of Ancient Greek Theatre. The exhibition was met with much critical attention and large numbers of visitors. He returned to Sicily to exhibit at Galleria Quadrifoglio in Siracusa and the Capella Bonajuto in Catania in 2008. He then curated a group show with fellow Sicilian artists Michele Ciacciofera and Emilia Faro for the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs in Gordes, France—Occhi: Travaux Récents. In 2009 he exhibited at the Norman castle at Aci Castello, again in Sicily. He participated in Imperium, curated by Dr. Thomas Noble Howe and Edward Lucie-Smith in 2010, at Southwestern University, Texas.

In 2014 he developed the “Doña Inés Lost Her Slipper” project, for which he ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. The show was featured at the Santa Fe Community College Visual Art Gallery in the fall of 2014, and got much critical attention. It then traveled in 2015 to the Palazzo Nicolaci, in Noto, Italy—a living 18 th century museum. It was exhibited at the Real Jardin Botanico Real, next to the Prado, in Madrid, Spain, in 2018. He is currently working on curating a group exhibition to take place in Noto, Italy, inspired by an ancient art ciritical text from 200 AD.

Benitez’ work is included in numerous private collections, some high-profile, such as Jean-Paul Gaultier’s, throughout the United States, as well as in France, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, etc. His work is on permanent display at the New Mexico State Legislature’s public art collection, as well as at the National Hispanic Culture Center and the Conseil Général de l’Aveyron in France. He has lectured on painting of the baroque period, as well as having his work featured on the covers of various books and publications. He has also taught many encaustic workshops, from R&F to the Encaustic Art Institute in Santa Fe, to Patris Studios, to Harvard University this spring 2022.

Website: franciscobenitez.com

Classes with Francisco Benitez

Homage to Fayum: Painting Figuratively in Encaustic

Francisco Benitez, a New Mexico-based artist, mastered art historical figurative techniques in oil before switching over to encaustic. Long fascinated by the funerary portrait paintings from Fayum, and the mystery of the great lost school of Greek painters, he embarked on a quest to master the techniques of the Ancients using both modern and ancient tools. In this workshop, the students will learn how to prepare the proplasmos, or Greek version of verdaccio underpainting, to then subsequently develop their paintings with heated tools, certain cauteria (spatulas), heat guns, and brushes, while at the same time gaining insight into flesh tone chromatics through the use of the tetrachromy, or four-color palette of the Greek and Fayum painters. This workshop will give students the basics of encaustic figurative painting, which can be later developed and expanded according to their specific sensibilities.