Cows are sizable animals, yet in two of these paintings the artist makes them appear small. This contrast characterizes them as helpless, as if a part of a machine controlled by an invisible giant, possibly a tyrant. We realize that the machine is the cattle industry whereas the giant is the man behind it. I think that in this setting the images will elicit different emotions from different people: remorse and pity from some, curiosity and indifference from others. I don’t think, however, that the artist intended to judge the audience. Instead he focuses solely on the theme; he presents his inarticulate models as either content and oblivious, when in a rural environment, or, as irritated, confused and alert when in a large-scale farm or auction theater.
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Several months ago I reviewed a still life with a key by J Matt Miller — that piece, however, displayed the object against a wall. Todd Bonita places his keys on a background of wood, and, it appears that in such minimalistic scenes that makes all the difference. Impenetrable stone “rejects” the key and marks it as a notionally autonomous object, a carved and patterned chunk of metal, poised in a connotative vacuum, which is to be filled by the beholder’s imagination. Wood, however, immediately associates with a door, a foil that dovetails with a key to evoke a specific and familiar circumstance. In the former variation, the key appeared as a detached purposeless thing (an idealistic approach with its own merit), here it is being showcased as a practical instrument.
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Todd Bonita (visit his website, the blog “Painting-Life” and the “Art Blog“) is an American artist who paints realistic still life, portraits and marine scenes with boats, which play an important part in his repertoire and are the focus of this review.
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