Renowned Portrait Artist Stephen Bennett will be commemorating International Day for the World’s Indigenous People by exhibiting his stunning series of large-scale portrait paintings. The exhibit will be held at Planet Thailand 133 North 7^th Street (between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street) Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-599-5758) from July 19 to August. 31. This exhibit helps bring attention to International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples being held at United Nations Headquarters on August 9. Another exhibit of Bennett’s work is presently being shown at the United Nations Visitor’s Lobby through August 31, 2007.

Stephen Bennett has traveled to more than 20 countries in the last 15 years ago, painting indigenous and endemic people in vibrant and colorful detail. Bennett has just returned to his Brooklyn studio after spending two years in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. To reach these exotic peoples and record them left him 3 times with Malaria and beaten with machetes along the roadside, his teeth knocked out. Wherever he travels, he lives with local families to capture soulful insights through the medium of portrait painting. He always does what it takes to get there and return with his paintings. 

Bennett’s portraits are in the private collections of Michelle Pfeiffer, Senator Arlen Spector, Tom Brokaw, The President of Panama, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, among others. His work has also been used to highlight indigenous cultures in Tanzania, Namibia, Borneo, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, St. Martin, Panama, French Polynesia, and the Seychelles. 

Stephen Bennett is the founder of Faces of the World Inc, an educational, non-profit organization aimed at teaching and inspiring children from all over the world to communicate through art. For more information on the organization, please visit www.facesoftheworld.net. For more information on Bennett’s work, visit his website: www.theportraitpainter.com.