PORTLAND, OR.- A painter of subtleties and small moments, Barcelona-based artist Jose Bonell (b. 1989, Barcelona, Catalonia, where he continues to live and work) opened his first exhibition in the United States with
Adams and Ollman. The exhibition features nearly 25 new paintings on canvas and is on view at the gallery through February 18, 2023.
Bonell's elusive, figurative works are charged with anticipation, a wry wit, and an appreciation of the daily absurdities of the human experience. Bonell’s cast of characters are engaged a range of zany, mysterious acts, each caught in evocative moments: arms poke out from holes willy-nilly, pointing accusingly at one another; an elegantly gloved hand delicately takes a tidy row of mysterious objects for a walk; forsaken shoes attempt to fill a void with the warmth and light of candles. With quick marks and washes of paint applied without fuss, the artist conjures discrete follies, absurdities and ambiguous moments into being. There is little comment or context for the small glimpses we are given, yet the works require no explanation. Ambiguity and isolation tinged sometimes with nostalgia or curiosity, and emphasized by an atmospheric, moody color sensibility, are inherent in each.
The steady stream of narratives that Bonell proposes are informed by both invention and experience, the extraordinary and the mundane. Bonell carefully studies the world around him recording his observations in a notebook that he carries with him each day. Quick sketches, an outline of a composition, notes for an idea, possible titles or a significant word are collected daily and often later become the basis of a painting. These personal experiences, alongside literary or historical references including Greek mythology, biblical stories and folk tales, are isolated, magnified, examined and reimagined through an uncanny and absurdist lens. Bonell paints quickly and searches with his brush for shapes, color, gesture and ultimately image. “I never know exactly what I am going to do, and I am addicted to this surprise,” the artist remarks on his process. On the other side appear visual metaphors for the banality, futility, complexities, truisms, humor and poetics of human existence.
Many of Bonell’s tragicomic images probe the mysteries of time and space. For instance, Time of Clocks features an arm bent at the front of the picture plane entirely covered in watch faces each set to different times, while Quarantine Room depicts a room that—despite having both an open door and window—implies some unseen prisoner has been tallying day after day. In The Inner Night, a figure unbuttons their shirt to reveal a nightscape, the universe—a poignant look into our relationship to the infinite, our existence outside the confines of a ticking clock.
Hands and feet and their accouterments—gloves, shoes and socks—are also main protagonists. Legs are lashed to the earth by a tangle of weeds; dirty gym socks commingle with a pair of woman’s high heeled shoes, and in another work, a bent pinky toe fetchingly draws “SOS” in the sand. A gaggle of delicate hands commune together in Hasard, Hasard to flick endless dice in a coordinated search for luck. The artist’s symbolic use of hands and feet denotes communication and creation, as well as humility and love.
Overall the works examine a range of topics—work and labor, class and taste, gender roles and expectations, among other things. Philosophical questions are tackled with laughter and modesty. The paintings, with their “what ifs,” appear like a dream or an apparition, the ideas contained within each coming into a poetic focus with a distinct clarity before they dissipate.
Jose Bonell is co-director at Unica Edicions, a publisher of artist's books and serial objects founded in 2020. Bonell's works are part of the Collection de la Ville in Vitry-sur-Seine as well as the Fundacja Krupa in Warsaw.
