Bea Bonafini is an Italian Artist born in 1990 in Bonn, Germany. Bonafini did her Foundation course in Art & Design at Chelsea College in London. Furthermore, she holds a First-Class Honours bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Slade School and a master’s degree with a distinction from the Royal College of Art in London. Bonafini is a Barcelona based artist whose interdisciplinary practice draws from oneiric visions overlapping personal and ancient mythologies. Her tactile, intimate worlds centre around sensuality, vulnerability and fantasy, forming swirling scenarios that are fragmented and multi-layered. Bonafini’s work expands the possibilities and interplay of painting, tapestry and sculpture while reinventing artisanal techniques. Acting as protected spheres, Bonafini’s installations create encounters between the earthly and the otherworldly.
Solo exhibitions include Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, USA (2024); ACQUE AMARE, Ala Foundation Prize, Naples, Italy (2023); (UNDER) BLACK EARTH, Wilhelmina Gallery, Hydra, Greece (2023); Uneartly, Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2022); Animals of your Lips, Bosse & Baum, London, UK (2022); Nosbaum, reding, Luxembourg, LU (2022); II Chiostro Animato, Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Italy (2022); A Monstrous Fruit, Setareh, Berlin, Germany (2022); Ghosts for a Post-Modern Tale, LAAA, Mexico (2022); Full Moon (Empty Stomach), Renata Fabbri, Milan, Italy (2021); Sfiorare Fantasmi, Eduardo Secci, Florence, Italy (2021); Art-o-Rama, Bosse & Baum, Marseille, France (2021); Twin Waves, Operativa, Rome, Italy (2020); Chimère, Chloe Salgado, Paris, France (2019); Talk to the Hand, Bosse & Baum, London, UK (2019); Ogni Pensiero Vola, Renata Fabbri, Milan, Italy (2018); Nest, Zabludowicz Collection Invites, London, UK (2017).
Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) EXPO Chicago, Kristin Hjellgjerde Gallery, Chicago, IL (2024); Italian Painting Today, Triennale Milano. Curated by Damiano Gullì, Italy (2023); Horizon of the Void, Artocène, Chamonix, France (2023); Artocène, Chamonix, France (2023); Benaki Museum Auction, Athens, Greece (2023); Within+Without, Curated by Ferren Gipson, Unit London, London, UK (2023); Incidente Domestico, Societé Interlude, Turin, Italy (2023); Mothers, Badr El Jundi, Spain (2023); Viaggio in Sicilia 9, Palazzo, Abatellis Museum, Palermi, Italy (2022); L’Origine del Mondo, Fondazione per l’Arte, Rome, Italy (2022); Labyrinth, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2022); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Alkinois, Greece, Premio Conai, Spazio Taverna, Rome, Italy (2022); Materia Nova, Spazio Y, curated by Massimo Mininni and Benedetta Monti, Galleria Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy (2022); The Artsy Vanguard Fourth Edition, curated by Erin Jenoa Gilbert, Miami, US Psychic Anemone, Cob Gallery, London, UK (2021); Salto in Altro, curated by Edoardo Monti, Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy (2021); Quarantanove non è cinquanta, Vogue Italia, curated by Valentina Ciarallo, Italy (2021); Waves Between Us, Fondazione Sandretto, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene, Italy (2020); Transatlantico, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, USA (2020); FiBRA Residency Group Show, Post_Institute Von Goetz, London, UK, curated by Mia Pfeifer (2019); Memories Arrested in Space, Italian Institute of Culture, London, UK, curated by ARTUNER (2018).
Highlights and Collections
Bea Bonafini’s work can be found in various private and public collections such as the Maleki Collection, The Fondazione Monti Collection, Brescia, Italy and The Jonkoping Council Collection, Sweden. Bonafini has been selected for the Alkinois art residency, Athens, Greece (2022); The TAC art residency, Tuscany, Italy (2022); Premio Conai finalist, Rome, Italy (2022) and the Platform Southwark Studio Residency, London. She has been awarded with the ALA Art Prize, First Prize, Naples, Italy (2023); the Pébeo Prize for Painting, Art-o-Rama, Marseille, France (2021-2019); the Abbey Scholarship for Painting, British School at Rome, IT Finalist Talent Prize, Rome, Italy (2021-2020);the Rosa Lee Travel Grant, British School, Rome, Italy; the Finalist Premio Cairo, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy (2019); The Fieldworks Studio Residency, London, UK (2017); among more.