Hugo Bonamin is a compelling painter whose works explore the notion of conflict that individuals undergo when searching for their true identities. 

One does not need to wend one’s way through the intricate labyrinths of art history or analyze complex philosophies to know why.  One just has to look at these large, opulent and oddly disturbing canvases for the answers.  He evokes sensation without the tedium of its passage.  The raw intensity of his apparent pain is often overwhelming.  His blacks have a bottomless depth which stands out against pristine white walls.  Moving across the works one experiences vividness and a feeling of humanity captured, meeting its fate within the pictorial surface.  This is a haunting vision of life; a feeling of chilling anguish.  

Bonamin is engaged with temporality, thereby infusing the works with a narrative.  His imagery, considerable formal talents and technical abilities are all harnessed towards the act of transformation: the disruption of the structure of face and body; the reduction of the human form to a few basics; and the grimness of mortality itself.  The journey through painting is a sequence of thought, a narrative encompassing both action and image; an amalgam of natural space and frenzied energy.  His colours, though muted, are fresh and the surfaces tactile, perhaps because of the seepage on to the canvases.  When seen from a distance, there is a seductiveness, a lushness about the images which when seen close up seems far more disturbing.  

These works are wonderfully balanced.  Given the spontaneous approach of Bonamin’s technique, he expresses a surprising sense of control with great flair.  He is able to conjure a specific face or association without using a mundane, linear, realistic language, instead treating the viewer to a grand, almost operatic, spectacle.  Reading his images from one side to the other, one senses that these are the works of a figurative painter who is not a realist but who makes his spaces feel very real indeed without, fortunately, straying into the realms of fancy or mannerism.  There is an immediacy and aggression about his imagery which is singularly appealing.  The surety in relation to the subjects, the daring brushwork and the brooding draughtsmanship all convey the artist’s ability to find the most appropriate means of articulating whatever it is he has to. 

Bonamin’s technique has clearly evolved out of acts of trial but his language has remained consistent and distinct.  He is primarily a tonal painter who makes the occasional, fetching foray into colour.  Most importantly, his palette is distinctive and considered and draws the viewer in to the image in such a way that he or she is no longer aware that it is a colour, instead feeling it much like a tactile sensation.  In these works the physical world and the world of art become one, creating a mesmerizing balance of forces and a harmony like that of music amplified.   They are unflinching depictions of the anxieties of the modern human condition and also eloquently convey the artist’s processes and thoughts.  Concerned with what it is to be human, this exhibition looks at the range of emotion – from compassion to violence – and all that it implies.  Textures and brushwork reveal and communicate personality and feelings.  At the heart of it all, though, lies the desire to balance psychological insight with physical identity in new and unexpected ways.  

Anirudh Chari