Shannon Bono

About

Shannon’s paintings embody an afrofemcentrist consciousness, centralising the experiences of black womanhood through her own lens. Using oils, acrylics and spray paints, she is invested in producing layered, figurative, compositions embedded with symbolism that centralise black womanhood as a source of knowledge and understanding. Bono’s paintings provide a portal to an alternative dimension where magic occurs, in this alternate realm she demonstrates the interactions with spiritual beings and artefacts that support us in our everyday lives. Enamoured by African spiritually, Christian iconography and renaissance art, she employs its purpose of cultural impact for an improved society. Bono explores the internal body as well as the external, by merging the design of notable fabrics from Africa with scientific imagery proving a visual language for magic and divination as the foundations of her story telling. The anatomy acts as a second canvas in the foreground, using the body as a powerful signifier that provokes dialogue, playing with pose, gesture and the gaze to challenge reality.

In 2021, Bono presented her first solo exhibition titled “The Hands that Hold You,” at the Anderson Contemporary, London. She has been awarded the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship and is currently completing a masters in painting at the Royal College of Art. Bono was selected by the King to paint a portrait for the ‘Portraits of Generation’ project, which was featured on BBC 2, has been displayed at Holyroodhouse house and will be exhibited at the National portrait Gallery and the permanent Royal Collection (2023/24). She was also selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries award 2021 showing at Firstsite and The South London Gallery. Recent exhibitions include Like Paradise presented by Claridge Art Space curated by Ekow Eshun, Manifold Deluxe by FF Projects (2023), ‘Rhizome’ presented by Ione & Mann Gallery (2023), “The Red Room” presented by Berntson Bhattacharjee gallery, “Love is the Devil: Studies after Francis Bacon” presented at Marlborough Gallery (2022), “Bold Black British,” presented at Christie’s (2021), “Reclaiming Magic” Royal Academy Summer exhibition, ‘WOP’ Avant Arte x WOAW Gallery Hong Kong (2021-2022) and the World Reimagined Globe (2022). Other notable galleries she has exhibited with include The Lee Alexander McQueen Sarabande Foundation, Workplace Gallery, Amir Singh Gallery,OOF Gallery and Daniel Benjamin Gallery. Shannon’s work has been presented on the Maximus billboard in partnership with Black Blossoms and the Kensington and Chelsea Art week, The Piccadilly lights and billboards in New York transit systems in collaboration with Artsy, she has been featured in Dazed Magazine and online press by Elephant magazine, Wallpaper magazine, Vogue, Bazaar,  i-D and Soho house.