Bea Bonafini

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).