JOSHUA BONSON - TO CONNECT

This exhibition is a body of works that have been lovingly created over the past 12 months, a reflection of myself, my feelings, my family, and aspects of the place they were made.

I created works to connect and to open windows into other people’s thoughts and to have them tell me what they see and feel. An opportunity for the audience to use their imagination to find something in my work that makes them think, feel, experience, and maybe share that with someone else. I want my artworks to generate stories that people connect over or around; I love hearing what people see in my paintings. Each work is a unique, with its own personality.They are all a part of me, enabling me to express myself, tell a story, start a conversation.

The completed works are both contemporary abstractions in appearance but also embody indigenous traditions and meanings that stretch back over time. In our culture, there is a connection between people and families; kinship that can’t be described or translated in English. I capture those ties in my works, with my markings and the strokes of the brush. My heritage guides

the stories captured.Textured streaks of acrylic create an element of flow, scaled perfection, they tell a personal story …. a portrayal of uniqueness, solidarity, and an acknowledgement of bloodlines.

Thick slabs of paint applied generously float on water y surfaces, alluding to my people and totem, the saltwater crocodile. Sections of landscape, closeups, memories of places and times gone past and family. Each painting is a beautiful contemporary work that reflects my visual language, portraying its own personality with the use of texture, movement and colour.

Everyone’s art is different, I try to be me, and create as I want to, the way I choose to.

I hope everyone enjoys the works and are able to spend time with each piece.The thickly applied surface allows the painting to change as light shift across the canvas, becoming new and generating a fresh experience for the viewer every day.