DEMAREST— The Demarest Free Public Library announces artist Maureen Bennett as its featured exhibitor for the month of April. Her collection, Woodlands on Wood: Beauty and (Im)Balance, reflects the delicate and rapidly shifting relationship between humans and the natural world.
“Our entire well-being is dependent on the natural world,” Bennett writes. “I hang these words on my studio wall to keep me in the immediate and urgent moment of that statement.”
Her newest series draws from the ecosystem just outside her window—woodlands she describes as both “magical and sacred.” The work captures the quiet beauty of the forest while also grappling with its increasing vulnerability.
“I’m deeply concerned about the effects of climate change,” she says, “some subtle and others monumental.” Among the changes Bennett highlights are utility-driven tree clearing, the spread of invasive plants like Japanese knotweed and barberry, and the loss of ash trees from the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect responsible for the death of hundreds of millions of trees nationwide.
“I witnessed the cutting down of many ash trees over 100 feet tall,” she adds. “The environmental changes are real, but what’s so alarming is the speed.”
About the Artist
Maureen Bennett is an artist, art activist, and educator whose work has been widely exhibited, including at Site:Brooklyn Gallery (NYC), the Monmouth Museum (Lincroft), Long Beach Island Foundation, Alfa Gallery (New Brunswick), and Borghi Fine Art Gallery. She served as the Artist-in-Residence at the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank in 2021.
She is a recipient of the NYC Circle of Mercy Award and has earned multiple grants supporting art for social good, including from the Puffin Foundation, SKB Foundation, Parents as Art Partners Grant, Center for Arts Education (NYC), and the Bronx Council on the Arts.
To view more of her work, visit maureenbennett.com or follow her on Instagram at @maureenbennettoc.