Amaya Gallay ‘25

How can we play with the interaction between perception and representation in artwork? What happens when we reconsider the role of context in artwork? If we change the way we look at things, do the things we look at change?

An exhibition of works by Elizabeth Bonaventura opened in the Heimbold gallery at Sarah Lawrence on Sept. 7 and will be on view until Oct. 22. The curation of the Gallery leads the viewer on a journey through Bonaventura's career and experience with a rare form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia. Frontotemporal Dementia differs from common dementia because it tends to affect younger individuals and affects one's personality, causing patients to lose some social skills, act inappropriately, impulsively and emotionally distant, rather than just losing memories. Her experience with this illness and her interest in perception contribute a tone to Bonaventura’s work that pushes ordinary forms to a philosophically advanced level of visual understanding.

The new-york based artist included several earlier bodies of work in the exhibition, from her years following her time as a BFA student at Moore College of art and Design in Philadelphia in the 1980s. As well as some more recent, from her other solo exhibitions. The collection spans almost 25 years of art making, featuring pieces from 1995-2019 The way the work develops through the room and thus her career is entrancing. The first moment in the room is a series of small collaged and painted panels that immediately draw in any lover of mixed media artwork. These panels are Bonaventura’s earliest works and some of my favorites. Her distinct style seems to have been born in these early works, as there is a clear emphasis on unsettling forms and figures, daunting scenes, and a specifically light sense of whimsy and humor. Further down the wall is a collection of about 33 altered postcards. The postcards have been painted on to alter the context of the scene, and in most cases, the alterations have specifically obstructed key contextual elements of the original card. In some, only faces are left under large streaks of paint, in others, cards have been almost completely painted white save for a few marks showing through, and in many, scenes have been simplified into broad shapes with paint, or humorized by adding a silly expression over a serious looking figure. In many of the cards, the context is completely gone. The postcard has transformed into blobs of collaged colors.

The second wall of the room is filled with larger scale paintings, some reaching almost floor to ceiling, of silhouettes of people walking, talking, dancing, all completely unbound by the scene of the painting or the other figures surrounding them. These paintings exemplify the theme of cerebral processing and the way the brain changes and morphs through time and illness. The figures seem dissociated from reality but not necessarily lost. Comic panels fill the back of the gallery with bold colors and high contrast, low reality paintings. The alien-like characters in the panels interact with each other in what seems to be meaningful and important ways, despite their poses being quite simple and the situations unclear in a dreamy sort of way.

This collection showcases Bonaventura’s incredible ability to induce change in the way we look at not only art, but things. Observing the world through Bonaventura's eyes offers the viewer a glimpse into a vibrant world with flexible rules. The collection is a striking example of how art continues to change and challenge new ideas. The can’t miss exhibition is on view until Oct 22, 2023 in the Heimbold Gallery.

Images and other information available at https://www.elizabethbonaventuraart.com

Elizabeth Bonaventura's Heimbold Gallery Show is Transformative