- Bea Bonafini
ALA Art Prize 23
ALA Art Prize 23 goes to Bea Bonafini with the project “Acque Amare”
Bea Bonafini, Swallowing Sky, 2022Porcelain and steel, 120x32x18 cm. Courtesy the artist and Bosse & Baum.
Bea Bonafini, The World’s Night, 2022Gouache and watercolour on engraved-cork, 144x125 cm. Courtesy the artist and SETAREH.
Bea Bonafini, Burst From My Lips, 2022Gouache and watercolor on cork, 154x141x3.5 cm
Bea Bonafini, Face of the Deep, 2021Pastel on mixed carpet inlay, 350x350 cm. Courtesy the artist and Eduardo Secci. Ph. Stefano Maniero
Bea Bonafini, Plinian Fire, 2022Bamboo-Silk handtufted, 195x145cm. Courtesy the artist and SETAREH. In collaboration with Ten Carpets, Athens.
Bea Bonafini wins ALA Art Prize with her project “Acque Amare”.
According to the Scientific Board of the ALA Art Prize:
«The Mediterranean Theatre inside Mostra d’Oltremare seems to be the ideal architectural context for the work of Bea Bonafini, adding a new chapter to the amazing iconography featured in the ALA headquarters. Indeed, the imagery evoked by the artist adapts marine themes to the aesthetic and philosophical ideals of the 21st century, suggesting, for example, the idea of fluidity as the central pivot of our society.
In this work, Bonafini operates a twofold modernization: one linked to the ancient tapestry technique, the other combined with a long-term iconographic reflection, which, from the legacy of a mythological past, results in the current post-human present.
A Modern Penelope, Bea weaves stories of women and sea, mythologies of wars and loves, narrated and handed down orally for ages, which in her work become silk, bamboo and wool threads, to remind us that the Mediterranean has always been a place of exchange of techniques and knowledge.»
Bea Bonafini (Bonn, 1990) lives and works between London and Rome. She received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2014, and a MA in Painting form the Royal College of Art, London, in 2016. She works across painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, tapestry and textiles, expanding their corresponding formal interrelationships. Bonafini’s interdisciplinary practice draws from oneiric visions, overlapping personal and ancient mythologies. Her tactile, intimate worlds center around sensuality, vulnerability and fantasy, forming swirling scenarios that are fragmented and multi-layered. Figures are evanescent and transcendental, referencing spiritual imagery where fluid bodies collide, disperse, swim, fly and fall, openings to encounters between the earthly and the otherworldly. Holistic perspectives are developed in close dialogue with architecture, where space is approached as an extension to the work to envelop the viewer. Bonafini’s solo exhibitions include Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg (2022); Bosse & Baum, London (2022 and 2019); Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome (2022); Setareh Gallery, Berlin (2022); LAAA (Laboratorio de Arte, Arquitectura y Arqueología), Mexico City (2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021 and 2018); Eduardo Secci, Florence (2021); Operativa, Rome (2020); Chloe Salgado, Paris (2019); Lychee One Gallery, London (2018); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017); and Fieldworkds Gallery, London (2017). She has participated in group exhibitions at JARILAGER Gallery, Cologne (2022); Cob Gallery, London (2021); Larsen Warner, Stockholm (2020); Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (2019); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2018), amongst others. Residencies include: Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2021); Rosa Lee Travel Grant, British School at Rome (2020); Abbey Scholarship, British School at Rome (2019–20); La Berlugane-Maleki Residency and Commission Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France (2019); Platform Southwark Studio Residency, London (2018), Fibra Residency, Colombia (2018); Fieldworks Studio Residency, London (2017); Villa Lena, Toiano, Italy (2016); and The Beekeepers Residency, Castro Marim, Portugal (2015).
Bea Bonafini (Bonn, 1990) lives and works between London and Rome. She received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2014, and a MA in Painting form the Royal College of Art, London, in 2016. She works across painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, tapestry and textiles, expanding their corresponding formal interrelationships. Bonafini’s interdisciplinary practice draws from oneiric visions, overlapping personal and ancient mythologies. Her tactile, intimate worlds center around sensuality, vulnerability and fantasy, forming swirling scenarios that are fragmented and multi-layered. Figures are evanescent and transcendental, referencing spiritual imagery where fluid bodies collide, disperse, swim, fly and fall, openings to encounters between the earthly and the otherworldly. Holistic perspectives are developed in close dialogue with architecture, where space is approached as an extension to the work to envelop the viewer. Bonafini’s solo exhibitions include Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg (2022); Bosse & Baum, London (2022 and 2019); Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome (2022); Setareh Gallery, Berlin (2022); LAAA (Laboratorio de Arte, Arquitectura y Arqueología), Mexico City (2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021 and 2018); Eduardo Secci, Florence (2021); Operativa, Rome (2020); Chloe Salgado, Paris (2019); Lychee One Gallery, London (2018); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017); and Fieldworkds Gallery, London (2017). She has participated in group exhibitions at JARILAGER Gallery, Cologne (2022); Cob Gallery, London (2021); Larsen Warner, Stockholm (2020); Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (2019); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2018), amongst others. Residencies include: Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2021); Rosa Lee Travel Grant, British School at Rome (2020); Abbey Scholarship, British School at Rome (2019–20); La Berlugane-Maleki Residency and Commission Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France (2019); Platform Southwark Studio Residency, London (2018), Fibra Residency, Colombia (2018); Fieldworks Studio Residency, London (2017); Villa Lena, Toiano, Italy (2016); and The Beekeepers Residency, Castro Marim, Portugal (2015).
- Bea Bonafini,
- Andrea Martinucci,
- Serena Vestrucci
Oct 14 – 16, 2022
Main Section
Pav. 12 – Booth H7
- Bea Bonafini
Feb 1-4, 2019
Main Section
Pav. 25 – Booth A57
Renata Fabbri is delighted to announce that the artist has been chosen to create a project for the Croatian pavilion at the Sixtieth Venice Biennale, to take place April 20 to November 24, 2024.
- Vlatka Horvat
Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
Opening Sept 14
Until 12/11/2023
Curated by Kristina Bonjeković Stojković
