Chicago artist Carlo Beninati, whose montage paintings are in collections at the Smithsonian Institution, the Pentagon and the White House, is using his talents to help provide a home for some elderly Chicago area residents.
Beninati, 50, is putting the finishing touches on a mixed-media painting for Carnevale, a benefit costume ball for Villa Scalabrini, a not-for-profit retirement center in Northlake. Each sponsor of the Friday event at the Ambassador West Hotel will receive a limited-edition lithograph of that painting. Posters will also be available for sale to the public.
Beninati`s affable manner inspires comparisons with pop philosopher and fellow Italian-American Leo Buscaglia. Largely self-taught, he has painted portraits of Mike Ditka and Walter Payton, as well as leaders of Fortune 500 companies. White Sox fans may know his work from ”The Dream Fulfilled,” a painting in which the heroes of the old Comiskey Park (such as ”Shoeless”
Joe Jackson, Nellie Fox and Luke Appling) hover above the new. More than 15,000 posters have been made from the artist`s original oil.
This is not the first time Beninati has worked with Villa Scalabrini. His 1991 painting of people and images surrounding a pair of entwined hands hangs in the lobby of the retirement center.
”They really care about the elderly,” Beninati said. ”Anyone who works with them is really impressed . . . and they really have a need.”