Petronio Bendito

Ed.D., Northern Illinois University
M.F.A., Northern Illinois University
B.F.A., Central Michigan University

Specialization

Visual Communications Design
Computational Color Design Methods
Intersection of Art, Design, Science, and Technology

Scholarly and Creative Endeavors

Petronio Bendito is a new media designer, artist, and educator. HIs creative and scholarly works investigate digital color design methodologies, and the intersection of art, design, science, and technology. He teaches digital media design in the Visual Communication Design program at Purdue University (USA) in the Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance. Through his practice, Bendito examines digital color design methodology and aesthetics, visual literacy, visual thinking, and educational technology. He has worked extensively on interdisciplinary projects bringing together a wide range of professionals, approaches, and disciplines, including art, design, mathematics, computer science, neuroscience, UX design, music, dance, choreography, theater, and light design. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Visual Literacy and co-curates the biannual Intersection of Art and Science exhibit at Purdue. He lectures and presents his work and collaborations internationally.

Color Code series: RGB Color Wheel, RGB to CMYK Test Patterns. Rueff Gallery, Installation view (2012). This project examines digital and material expressions that are made possible through the intersection of art, design, computer science, and technological processes.

Originally from Brazil, Petronio Bendito earned Doctoral (Ed.D.) and M.F.A. degrees from Northern Illinois University and a B.F.A. from Central Michigan University. He also studied at the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, and Purdue University. He has taught art and design courses at Northern Illinois University (USA), DePaul University (USA), and a Summer program at the American University of Paris (France). During his appointment as a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University/Faculty of Education (Thailand), he worked with graduate students on several research projects. Bendito co-designed and co-taught a multimedia course in the Visual Communication program at Beijing Institute of Technology (China) and has led Color Design workshops in universities in Brazil, France, and the United States.

Bendito has exhibited, screened, performed, and presented his artworks and research projects throughout the United States and abroad in Brazil, China, Bulgaria, North Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

Bendito has participated in national and international exhibitions juried or curated by notable cultural leaders, including Ed Paschke, artist and Professor of Art and Art History at Northwestern University; Matthew Drutt, Senior Curator for the Menil Collections in Houston; Eleanor Heartney, writer and contributing editor for Art in America, ARTnews, New York Times, New Art Examiner, and The Washington Post; Michael Rooks, Assistant Curator of The Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art; Leesa Fanning, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Amy Cappellazzo, Head of International Contemporary Art at Christie’s Auction House, New York; and Carter Foster, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He exhibited at MetaDataPhile: The Collapse of Visual Information, an invitational exhibition curated by Lilia Lamas, Sixpack Projects, and Jennifer Frias, Associate Curator at UCR Sweeney Art Gallery. Participating artists included Cory Arcangel, Josh Azzarella, Matthew Bryant, Sky Burchard, Kathy Grayson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Frankie Martin, Ken Rinaldo, Kim Rugg, Jason Salavon, Peter Sarkisian, John Sisley, Stephanie Syjuco, Michael Toillion, and Jason Varone (Note: Professional titles reflect the period in which the exhibitions took place).

Bendito's works have been cited in interdisciplinary publications, such as Image and Imagery (text by Elizabeth Mix; Corrado Federici (Ed.), 2005, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers (2005); Les entreprises Critiques (Rose Marie Barrientos, et al., 2008, Cité du Design, Paris); Consortium, No.100 in the article “Bridging The Math-Art Divide” (Sarah Williams and David Pier) by the COMAP, Inc. (Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications)  Petronio Bendito: Digital Color, Algorithm and Expression (monograph: essays by art historians Catherine Dossin and Elizabeth Mix (2014, Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, Indiana). His works have also appeared in exhibitions catalogs and academic papers.

At Purdue University his work, research and collaborations have been featured in “People, Planet, Preservation/Office of the Vice President for Research Annual Report, 2011-2012” and “Transformation: Innovation at the Nexus of Humans, Nature and Cyberscience/Office of the Vice President for Research Annual Report, 2009-2010”  by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Think magazine, published by the School of Liberal Arts.

Bendito is the recipient of several art awards including Best of Show/Digital Printmaking (2013), Indiana Arts Commission Grant (2013), IVLA President's Service Award (2009), IVLA Creative Achievement Award (2007), Bank One Purchase Award (2004), Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education Award (2004), Indiana Partnership For Statewide Education Award (2004), VPA/Purdue Excellence in Teaching Award (2005), Puffin Foundation Artist Grant Award (2003), 15ht AVA Juried Annual Exhibition Award (2002) and WIRED magazine's Contest Winner 10.03/Return to Sender Postal Art (2002).

Bendito is a former member of the Board of Directors of the International Visual Literacy Association, a former contributing editor for a Media-N, a founding member of the New Media Caucus, and a current reviewer and board member for the Journal of Visual Literacy.  He is the co-editor of the Selected Readings of the Information Design International Conference (2009) and wrote a chapter for the Selected Reading of The 4th Information Design International Conference: Theories, Methods, and Applications (2011). He is a contributing writer for The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design (2015). Bendito conceptualized and co-curated, with computer scientist Tim Korb, the biannual Intersection of Art and Science exhibit at Purdue (2015, 2018, ongoing), and is the co-editor of its accompanying catalogues.

Engagement

Bendito has been involved in Purdue University's interdepartmental collaborations and is an advocate of service learning community-based projects, such as his Scholarship of Engagement Project with local dancers exploring the intersection of dance and technology: “Digital Kinetic Color Traces.” He co-curated an art and technology exhibition for Purdue Galleries: Digital Concentrate, and co-curated and art and science exhibitions for the Department of Computer Science. He is a member of West Lafayette's Public Arts Team, and a visionary and founding member of the Spectrum Art Gallery of the Pride Lafayette Community Center. His collaborative projects have been featured in two TEDx talks (TEDx PurdueU and TEDx Lafayette). He is a member of Double Helix Collective, which has presented works locally at Fountain Gallery and nationally at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY. His Natural Disaster Color exhibition was the theme of a solo exhibition at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette which was accompanied by a monograph. 

Click here or the image above to access this monograph directly from your desktop or laptop computer.

Online Presence

// Online Archive: petroniobendito.com 
​// ​LinkedIn: linkedin.com/pub/petronio-bendito/35/a11/654
// Natural Disaster Color Project: naturaldisastercolor.net 
// YouTube Chanel: youtube.com/user/ART2GOdotMOBI 
// Double Helix Collective: http://doublehelixcollective.net 
// Instagram: http://instagram.com/petronio.bendito.colors