Denita Benyshek
Wichita, KS
Dr. Benyshek creates doorways to visionary, ethereal realms, where viewers create meaning, while connecting intimately to self, the life cycle, and the cosmos.
Message
In early childhood, Dr. Benyshek lived in a farmhouse, amidst a Czech immigrant community in Kansas. She earned a BFA (Wichita State University), an MFA (University of Washington, Seattle), and a graduate certificate in the psychology of creativity, MA and PhD in humanistic and transpersonal psychology (Saybrook University, San Francisco). Benyshek attended the Pilchuck Glass School on a full scholarship and was an artist-in-resident at the Ucross Foundation, Wyoming. For 15 years, she taught visual art and dance in the bush villages of Alaska. Her research focuses on contemporary artists as shamans, with publications in the USA, UK, Poland, Hungary, and China.
Her artworks were included in group exhibits in west coast museums (Bellevue Museum of Art, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Yakima Valley Museum, Coos Bay Museum, Corvallis Art Center, Museum of NW Art), with solo exhibits in Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Sun Valley, ID, and Santa Fe, NM. Dr. Benyshek’s work is in the public art collections of the University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, King County Ethnic Heritage Collection, Glasmuseet of Ebeltoft, Denmark, and Snoqualmie Point Park. In 2022, OpenStudios selected Benyshek as the Botanica gardens artist-in-residence and, in 2024, she was awarded a Koch Cultural Trust grant.
In 2025, Dr. Benyshek presented Contemporary Artists as Shamans: Near and Far, at Harvester Arts. Solo exhibits included Reuben Saunders Gallery in April and University of Michigan Medical Center’s main gallery September 2 - December 5, 2025. The Clio Art Fair, New York City, featured her organic abstractions and performance ritual, with co-curation of the MMX mixed media exhibit at Harvester Arts, and a 3 person show at The Commercial Club at The National. Her work is currently on exhibit In: Rituals, Millepiani Gallery, Rome; Lotus and Lion, contemporary Buddhist and Hindu art, Shinshoni, Colorado; Cunneen-Hacket Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY; Creative Labor: The Art of Gestation online; and Coalesce, a four artist exhibit at art_up_stairs/Health Hub Gallery in New York City, with 12 images of her artwork in the anthology of poetry and fiction, VoiceS: Mysticism, Prophecies & Marigolds, Cold River Press.
Statement
For me, making art is an act of service. In 2018, Kim Junghee, a mansin (master of 1000 spirits) from South Korea, initiated me as a shaman through a traditional Naerim Gut (initiation ritual). The shamanic model best explains my lived experience and “fits” with how and why I create. During daily meditation, I invite the spirits of nature to enter and speak through me.
When immersed in nature, I feel the presence of an inspiring life force which I translate into watercolor paintings and drawings. Detail photographs highlight layers of colors, brushwork, and elegant lines, bringing subtle details to the foreground. These photographs become symmetrical organic abstractions, with archival pigment ink prints establishing a foundation which is further developed with layers of acrylics, watercolor, gouache, graphite, oil and chalk pastels, to enriching color and adding texture to each unique work. The newest works expand this idea to works on canvas, with acrylic and collage.
Each unique mixed-media artwork represents the spirit of nature, providing access to a radiant, mystical, inspirited world. In this liminal place, viewers engage in meaning-making creative processes, connect intimately to self, the eternal cycle of life, and the cosmic soul of nature.
My creative process is supported and inspired by my Czech heritage, quantum physics, studies of life sciences, folk art, animism, and transpersonal psychology. My artwork integrates nonlinear time, reverie-provoking discontinuous space, intuitive combinations, heightened color, and ecstatic visionary experiences. I believe in the power of transcendent beauty as I create healing experiences for my audience.
Selected Solo Exhibits
2026
The Sanctuary: Coming Full Circle, MARK Arts, Wichita, KS
2025
Mandalandscapes, University of Michigan Medical Center, Main Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
From the Garden, Reuben Saunders Gallery, Wichita, KS
Past
Hope Collection, Santa Fe, NM
University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK
Gallery Oscar, Sun Valley, ID
Anderson Glover, Kirkland, WA
Bell Gallery, Seattle, WA
Bruskin Gallery, Pt. Townsend, WA
Century II, Wichita, KS
Selected Group Exhibits
2025
Rituals, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy
Invoke and Imbibe, Cunneen-Hacket Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
Coalesce, Health Hub Gallery, New York City, NY
Lotus and Lion: Contemporary Buddhist Art, Shoshoni Retreat, CO
Clio Art Fair, New York City, NY
MMX: Positive Disintegration, Harvester Arts, Wichita, KS
HerStory, Viridian Artists, Chelsea, New York City, NY
Creative Labor, the Art of Gestation.
2024
cOLD Times, Viridian Artists, New York City, NY
Horizons, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS
Portfolio Platform, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS
Prairie Art Exhibit, Symphony in the Flnt Hills Gallery, Cottonwood Falls, KS
Past
Bellevue Museum of Art, WA
Whatcom Museum of History and Art, WA
Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Yakima Valley Museum, WA
Coos Bay Museum, OR
International Paint and Glass, Philabaum Gallery, Tucson, AZ
Redefining Visionary Art, Doma Gallery, SOHO, NY, juror Suzi Gablik
Mulvane Art Center, Topeka, KS
Museum of Fine Arts, Owensboro, KY
Salina Art Center, Salina, KS
Corvallis Art Center, OR
Washington Center, Olympia, WA
Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
Symphony of the Flint Hills Gallery, Cottonwood Falls, KS
Museum of NW Art, La Conner, WA
American Art Gallery, Tacoma, WA
Citizens Cultural Center, Fujinomiya, Japan