contemporary art / contemporary art

Hi everyone – family, my art collectors and art patrons, all of my supporters and friends – I am super excited to share with you my latest creations! I am in the studio very inspired, working on tons of new paintings with a lot of new creative ideas.

I have a great painting that everyone loves called ‘Brooklyn Cat’, I’m thankful to always have different inspirations and ideas. And I’m enjoying to be in my studio working on new paintings everyday. Wishing everyone a great Summertime, stay tuned for more from Vito Bonanno Art!

‘Brooklyn Cat’

Thank you to The Art of Autism for selecting my artwork for your information postcards! 🧩💙
www.the-art-of-autism.com

The Art of Autism is a nonprofit which empowers autistic people and their families through participation in the arts.

Happy to announce my participation in an online exhibition, ‘River of Dreams’ with Contemporary Art Curator June 14 – October 14, 2021.

”Our art is our dream. The dream is a symbolic journey towards the most private part of the human soul. The theme of dreams goes through the idea of a journey, reflection, discovery, knowledge and emotion. The dream is a gateway into the deepest space of the soul. Dreams are potent driving forces in life. Dreams are the source, followed by hard work for the dreams to come true, and that’s the magic and beauty of life.” -CAC.

Read my feature article in Contemporary Art Curator Magazine: https://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/online-exhibition-river-of-dreams/vito-bonanno?rq=vito

Six Summit Gallery
Presents: Order & Chaos
Marian Doherty & Vito Bonanno
314 Flat Rock Place, Suite F135, Westbrook CT, 06498
May 13th – June 30th
Opening Reception: June 12th 12-4pm

Vito Bonanno, is a returning Westbrook artist whose work is collected internationally. He has been featured in Art Basel Miami and is in the permanent corporate collection of AMAZON, Google, and The Hartford. Vito brings 20 new pieces of a mix of hyper-focused aesthetic blending street art, pop culture, hopes and dreams from his unfiltered world to the canvas by tapping into the daily emotional and social challenges of living with autism.

Marian Doherty was born in the Bronx and studied painting and sculpture at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Today, she is located in Milford, CT with her home and studio. Marian is an award winning artist with artworks shown in Connecticut and New York. Her work has been featured at SSG during New York Fashion Week and at The Leo House. The work highlights the tension between a Beautiful, orderly, linear element and utter Chaos.

I recently started a new series called Life Interrupted which began with the creation of a painting I titled, ‘Pizza Interrupted‘. The piece is 48″H x 36″W made with mixed medium including oil paint, india ink, and oil paint pen. It is the first in this series with more to come! Contact me for pricing and shipping information at Vito@VitoBonanno.com

Pizza Interrupted is like a documentary on canvas, about how a sudden abrupt event can change life as we know it. It outlines the flood of emotions and feelings of helplessness and fragmentation, while the use of vibrant colors can still bring a smile to our heart in the face of uncertainty and difficulty, reminding us of the power, resilience and always hopeful spirit of humanity.

I’m always in my studio working on new paintings. I have a lot of new pieces in progress, I’m working on a large scale series, where I start with a layer of India ink, then I layer over with acrylics and I’m considering to even add an oil paint overlay.

If you could take a look inside everything I am, mind, body and soul, you would see the images and feel the emotions that I put onto the canvas. My art is a true example of who I was and what I was feeling during the days any one piece was created. Those factors determine the images and colors that are used and is why many of my pieces are multi-layered, because they resemble the multi-layered, chaotic thought process of images and thoughts that call my mind their home.

My mind is a place where images, thoughts and words float around in a bumper-car like world, crashing and speeding in all directions. In wanting to clear my head sometimes of all this noise, I get some relief by taking these images and feelings and putting them down onto the canvas. Over the months of working on a series of works, this process gets repeated and layers are added over layers, sometimes obliterating the entire drawing underneath, other times allowing some of the under drawings to peak through.

Hello friends and collectors, I am very excited to announce that several of my original art pieces have been acquired by a new corporate client, the one and only Amazon! They have made a purchase of 6 of my original art pieces for one of their corporate buildings in Seattle, Washington. The art will be installed this fall, and I hope to have photos I can share with you once the installation is complete. Other corporate clients that have purchased my artwork include The Hartford NC, CBRE Nashville and City Block. None of this would be possible without my relationship with ArtLifting, and I want to send a big THANK YOU to everyone there for these tremendous opportunities and their dedication to myself and the other artists they represent. I was introduced to this incredible organization through The Art of Autism — Artlifting is a very special non-profit whose mission is to empower individuals living with disabilities through the celebration and sale of their artwork.

‘King Kong’, 2014 Obsessions & Meditations series.
Aerosol, acrylic, craypas, paint marker, archival glitter on canvas, 53.5“H x 63.5”W

King Kong pictured above is one of the handful of my artworks purchased by Amazon. Prints can be purchased directly from ArtLifting, they are produced on demand on either mounted wrapped canvas or giclee fine art paper in a variety of sizes here in the United States. High-quality print reproductions of my work can be purchased for your home or office. “From the 2014 Obsessions & Meditation Series, King Kong is a small part of the story of the series where the artist, who is autistic, tries to expel from his brain the constant barrage of images and thoughts that fight to be the dominant. The images, words and emotions on the canvas derive their life from either obsessions the artists struggles with, or the images and memories he uses to meditate on in order to bring order to the feeling of chaos and helplessness he feels dealing with the day to day life of living on the spectrum. The name, King Kong, hails back to a happy time when the artist was young and visited the King Kong ride at Universal Studios in FL. The graffiti that decorated the faux subway of the ride you passed by as you waited in line made an impression on him, and over 20 years later found itself with a new life on this canvas.”

‘Traffic Lights Plague Trolley Square’, 2015 Anxiety & Dreams series.
Spray paint, acrylic, paint stick on canvas, 46″H x 46″W x 1.5″D

Traffic Lights Plague Trolley Square is another piece purchased by Amazon. “From the Anxiety and Dreams series, the artist is autistic and struggles with typical images and happenings of daily life becoming obsessions that turn to anxiety. Trolley Square housed his studio, but graffiti got painted on the back of the building that slowly overtime caused anxiety, mostly because it reminded the artist that his disability prevented him from being independent enough to do his own tagging and youthful things. In his dreams, or on the canvas, he can find a feeling of control over these truths of things he missed out on in the past, or future. His mind has gone back to teenage years, of bands of that time. Bold images of traffic lights and toilets are there to protect him from the emotional upheaval he can feel when he thinks too hard about life.”

‘Daily Anxiety’, 2015 Anxiety & Dreams series.
Spray paint, acrylic, paint stick on canvas, 50″H x 50″W x 1.5″D

Prints can be purchased of my work directly from ArtLifting, whose mission is to empower individuals living with disabilities through the celebration and sale of their artwork. Prints are produced on demand on either mounted wrapped canvas or giclee fine art paper in a variety of sizes here in the United States. High-quality print reproductions for your home or office, available at: https://www.artlifting.com/collections/vito-bonanno

I also have many original art pieces for sale, and are adding to my new pieces all the time. Please check out my website, www.vitobonanno.com, to view available original art and contact me at vito@vitobonanno.com with any questions regarding availability, pricing, commission work and shipping.

Thank you everyone. Love and Be Safe–Vito

For years I’ve been writing and drawing in journals everyday, often multiple times a day. I have hundreds of full journals! Using a journal was a way of self-managing my stresses and fears. I still write in a journal daily, but my overall day to day life since I moved to the shoreline is more fulfilling, I have busier and more productive days, so my journal entries are more for pleasure then therapy. Much of the words and imagery found in my journals make their way onto my art.

I’ve been working on a lot of new art in my new studio. I like to work on many pieces at one time, adding layers over layers and images over images. Since 2017, I’ve been represented by Artlifting. Besides being a wonderful organization, they also offer prints of original works they represent for their artists. Most exciting, I was recently informed by Artlifting that they have secured the sale of 6 of my original art pieces to a well known international corporate client. This client is renovating their headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and each floor was assigned a “theme”. One of the themes was “Industrial”, and my work was the perfect fit. I’m very excited and will be able to provide more information about this notable moment in my art career to you all soon. Please stay tuned. Until then, “Be Safe and wish for the buildings!”

I’ve been working on lots of new art since I moved into my new studio in Old Saybrook, CT. It’s great to be setting up my new studio, I had a chance to unpack some artwork that I did not have a chance to finish before I moved, including these two pieces below. All the paint I used for these is gone so I might just get a few new colors and have a go at it!

My studio would not be mine if it did not have my favorite traffic lights. All these lights were given to me from people who understood my passion and life long love of traffic lights. The first was a gift from a police officer who I met in summer camp when I was 14 years old! That started it all!

A necessity for my inspiration and also to help keep me calm is my toilet collection (many gifts from friends who understood my love and obsession with them, it has to do with shape and circles), and of course my Ninja Turtles! I have quite the collection of Ninja Turtles. Working on making a place for a bunch of them in the new studio.

I have a lot of new art pieces available and have been greatly inspired by my new art space, please check out my new work and let me know if you are interested in anything. Browse through my site and see if something catches your eye! Email me for pricing and shipping info at Vito@VitoBonanno.com

Pinky, 2018

India Ink, Paint Pen, Acrylic Pen on Canvas
24″ x 24” x .5”
$695.00

I’m very excited and grateful to be selling my original art pieces and prints of my work with ArtLifting, their mission is to empower individuals living with disabilities through the celebration and sale of their artwork.

Check me out on ArtLifting.com, it’s such an incredible organization that supports artists with disabilities, helping me to showcase and sell my work. Browse amazing artwork and read inspiring stories. If you’re interested in an original art piece, email curator@artlifting.com my direct profile link is: https://www.artlifting.com/collections/vito-bonanno. Please check out my profile and view the work that can be purchased directly from ArtLifting. Prints are produced on demand on either mounted wrapped canvas or giclee fine art paper in a variety of sizes here in the United States. High-quality print reproductions for your home or office.

Dead Triva series, Red

ArtLifting is a benefit corporation founded in 2013 that connects socially conscious companies with talented artists impacted by homelessness or disabilities. ArtLifting is headquartered in Boston, MA but works with nearly 150 different artists across 30 different states. I have several art pieces available through ArtLifting, one is from my Dead Trivia series, ‘Red‘. As an autistic individual, there are things that my mind struggles to process. For example, people who have died a long time ago don’t know about cell phones or modern advances. My series, Dead Trivia, examined this anxiety I had at the time. I put deceased people in my art along with things or events that happened after they died-in an attempt to make this idea in my head that would haunt me a lot, get an answer that my brain could accept. It seemed to help. I don’t obsess about that idea so much anymore.

Airplane series, ‘Church Street South Building’

ArtLifting is about creating opportunity, empowerment, and validation. They offer artists the chance to secure our own income through the sale of original paintings, prints, and products. “By showcasing and selling artwork via ArtLifting.com, our artists gain self-confidence that permeates all aspects of their lives.”