Shannon Bono
Shannon Bono is a multimedia-driven artist, curator, cultural writer, and MA Art & Science graduate from Central Saint Martins University 2019. Bono is invested in producing symbolic layered figurative compositions that centralise the black female body as the subject, using it as a second canvas to tell stories of intersectionality and cultural practices with oil and acrylic paints as her medium. Her mission to advocate for the presence of black bodies is captured by the element of scale, colour, and anatomical manipulation. She re-imagines these bodies as a map of modernity employing surrealist cues to work as ‘artivisms’ (art+activism) against oppressive forces and share muted narratives. Her work over the past 2 years directly reflects the black female body as a source of tutelage and analysis for deeper thought and healing. Reclaiming the body and resisting negative colonial visual history in the genre of nudity is a common theme found in her paintings, she believes the body to be a very integral key of strength, symbolism, and vulnerability. Identity, sexuality, and body politics are channeled through her works, as a means of not only expressing black feminisms but also personal embodied experiences. Bono uses African textile culture and her background in biochemistry to perform as the foundation of her pieces, re-appropriating the symbolic nature of African fabrics fused with metaphorically using biological and chemical structures found in the body adds another layer in the storytelling aspect of Bono's work. Her goal is to educate, inspire and liberate her audience, as an interdisciplinary artist.
Bono has exhibited at the Central Saint Martins Degree Show One 2019, SGFA (Sound, gender, feminism, and activism) Tokyo conference, Tate Exchange 2019, Feminist Library and Xhibit 2019 at the Koppel Project Central Gallery, London showcasing the best creative talent from UAL. Current exhibitions include The State of Things at the Copeland Gallery, I AM at Keele University and The Colour of Pain exhibition with Imperial College London raising awareness for Sickle Cell Anaemia. Future projects include the 0.1% zine genomics, race, gender politics through scientific research by Dr. Yewande Pearse with NAVEL and workshops at the Tate Modern alongside the Zanele Muholi exhibition 2020.
