Tom Drake Bennett
Born in England and of Irish descent, the painter came to Berlin in 1975 to study at the Universität der Künste (UdK) and became a member of the Old Mole artist group the following year. Since 1984 he has had his studio in Berlin-Kreuzberg with a direct view of and access to the site of the former Anhalter goods station. Trains have always played a special role in his life, and the presence of the station area, which he likes to call "his garden", determined his art, especially in the 1980s; large-format buffer stop pictures are created. Shapes and surfaces in his pictures are reminiscent of landscapes or geographical locations. His works are often the result of multiple overdrawings, which he combines in collages with pieces of paper from a wide variety of sources. In addition to numerous private collections, the artist's works are represented in the Volkswagen Foundation, the Georg-August University of Göttingen, the Berlinische Galerie and the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, London and Dublin. Most recently he participated in the Art Biennale, Curitiba Brazil.
