For details of our small press (Community of Poets and Artists Press) see ARTISTSPRESS

Philip Bennetta is an English artist, poet and psychologist who has also lived and worked in France and South America. In the late nineteen sixties he became attracted to an interdisciplinary approach to the arts, which continues today, featuring a considered inclusion of subjects, styles, materials and techniques together with the blurring of traditional boundaries. His work relates to place, fragment, folklore and memory and is essentially poetic, inspired by E.E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot and Arte Povera. His poetry has appeared in a range of literary journals, anthologies, collections, films and broadcasts. He is married to the visual artist Susan Bennetta and now live and work in Walmer, Deal, Kent.

EDUCATION

He was awarded a bursary for advanced studies at Dartington College of Arts, into an interdisciplinary approach to the Arts – his music teacher was Imogen Holst. He also studied contemporary Arts at Christ Church College, Canterbury, Fine Art at the Kent Institute of Art & Design and holds BA and MA degrees, together with research and professional qualifications. 

EXHIBITIONS

The Poetry Library Exhibition Collection Royal Festival Hall, London, 1994 to present
Insight Out group exhibition Canterbury, 1998
Festival of Arts annual exhibition Challock, 1999
Suburbia Plot 27 collaborative installation with Sue Bennetta, Canterbury, 1999
Open Studio joint exhibition Calvados, 2000
Open Studio joint exhibition Whitstable, 2000
Making Our Mark Fine Art Media Show, Herbert Read, Canterbury, KIAD , 2000,
Arts Foundation Sandwich, 2000
Poetics group exhibition, Georges House Gallery, Folkestone, 2001
Arts Foundation Sandwich, 2001
English Heritage Plato’s cave, installation Sandwich, 2001
Artists Open House Canterbury Festival Whitstable, 2001
‘Approaching and’ Albion Bookshop Canterbury, 2002
Festival of Arts Week St Mary Cornwall, 2003
Open Studio joint exhibition Cornwall, 2003
Open Studio joint exhibition Minnis Bay, 2004
Recent work joint exhibition, David Burley Gallery, Birchington, 2005
Arts Emergency Community Pharmacy Margate, 2005
Open Studio joint exhibition Vendee, France, 2007
Open Studio joint exhibitions Charente, France, 2008-2014
Group Show Gallerie La Rochefoucauld Charente, France 2014
Open Studio Cornwall Open Studios Pelynt, Looe, Cornwall 2016
Response to Place, National Trust joint residency, Net Loft Polperro, 2016
Looe Literary Festival Group pop up exhibition Looe, Cornwall, 2016
Small Faces Collaborative Work Solent, Southampton, 2017
Climate Change Collaborative Work Anchorage, Alaska, 2017
Cornish Studies Library collection Cornwall, 2017 to present
St Anthony Head National Trust residency, Cornwall, 2017
The Watch House, Dodman, National Trust joint residency, Cornwall, 2017
St Anthony Head National Trust joint residency, Cornwall, 2018
Open Studios Cornwall, South Trekeive, Bodmin Moor, 2022
Postcard Exhibition, St Georges Hall, Deal 2023
Canterbury Festival, East Kent Artists’ Open House 2024
Linden Hall Studio, Winter Group Show Dec 2024 – Jan 2025 Pie Factory, Margate, SEAS exhibition 2-11 May 2025 Linden Hall Studio, Winter Group Show Dec 2024 – Jan 2025 Pie Factory, Margate, SEAS exhibition 2-11 May 2025 SEAS artist open studios exhibition June 2025 bookart & bulldog clips, Deal 25-26 October 2025 Linden Hall Studio, Winter Group Show Dec 2025 – Jan 2026 The Horsebridge, Whitstable, inPRINT exhibition Jan-Feb 2026

PUBLICATIONS

measures, University of Lancaster, from MA dissertation (1990)
get a dog and other poems, Community of Poets Press (1994)
get a life and other poems, Community of Poets Press  (1995)
The Scarpfoot Zone, an Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Kent
Aegis Press (1996) edited by John Rice & David Shields
missing in soft focus, Community of Poets Press (1996)
fragments, another suburbia, Community of Poets Press (1999)
approaching and…, Oakwood Press Proof @ KIAD (2002)
no sign, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2004)
sound of absence, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2006)
Home By Different Ways, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2016)
coat peg world, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2016)
lines from the net loft, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2017)

Killick, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2019)

 

POEMS BY POST
puzzle box by poet Michael Curtis, with artist Philip Bennetta (1998)
her face by Michael Curtis, with artist Philip Bennetta (1999)
neither i, by Philip Bennetta, with artist Randal Cooke (2001)
earth & stone by Philip Benetta, with artist Alan Young (2002)
l’arbre de Noël by Philip Bennetta, translated by Francesco Pantaleo,with artist Susan Bennetta, (2009)
A sequence of poems by Philip Bennetta, translated by Lidia Vianu, with artist Cristina Vianu, (2010)
forgotten place by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2010)
locating fern by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2011)
A sequence of 4 poems by Michael Curtis and artist Susan Bennetta (2012)
glittering loss by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2013)
drawings we have lived by Philip Bennetta, artist Susan Bennetta (2014)
dread flight by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2016)
bluebells at St Anthony by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2018) in october by Philip Bennetta, translated by Jerry Sethir, artist Susan Bennetta (2019)

unseen by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2023)

middle-fold by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2023)

rosy garlic by Philip Bennetta, with artist Susan Bennetta (2023)

The Temperate Life by Michael Curtis, with artist Philip Bennetta (2023)

POEMS BY POST (with music):

ARTISTS BOOKS
terra incognita 2000
monoprints whitstable (2000)
untitled woodcut book (2000)
untitled monoprint book (2000)
waiting (sonic art work with text) (2001)
approaching and … (2002)
monoprints minis bay (2007)
untitled prints and poems, Montbron (2009)
drawings we have made, Montbron (2012)