David Bonagurio
WE LIVE IN A TIME that is defined by the boundaries we break. Not only are we constantly probing the perimeter of every physical frontier, but we are beginning to peel back the shroud that covers the more abstract segments of the human experience. When our understanding of experience evolves it changes the way we interpret the world around us. As we discover more about our context, it deepens our experience of reality and provides insight into what we fundamentally are.
This is a fluid universe where nothing remains as it is forever. Even the most solid of objects will eventually experience a change in form, either violently or gradually. What this means for a rock may be easier to internalize, but what does it mean to a conscious being like you or I? Every atom in your body has been changed out many times over during the course of your life as you have grown and aged. What does it mean for your identity when you retain memories, singular consciousness, and a consistent sense of self for longer than you retain any physical matter?
I try to capture the fluidity of reality and the tension of perception through drawing and painting. The figures and forms in my work are representations of this true lack of boundaries and state of flux that we and everything else are always in. They rise up in some level of organization, are shaped by external forces, interact with their surroundings, and again surrender their form back to the æther of matter.
DAVID BONAGURIO is a figure painter who was born in Houston, Texas in 1987 and currently lives and works in Utica, New York. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drawing from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2009 and a post-baccalaureate certificate in fine art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Syracuse University in 2014. David’s work has become primarily drawing and painting, in which he uses figurative imagery to address personal and larger social issues which affect perspective and perception. See more of his work at: www.davidbonagurio.com