Review
“Can wire mesh take on the supple sensuality of naked human flesh? ...
Bonnie Shanas imparts to this industrial material a classical quality, with her reliefs featuring exquisitely formed nude male and female bodies melded in intimate embrace.
Just as anatomical fragments from antiquity take on eternal life, Shanas makes faceless torsos radiate sensuality, as seen in “For All We Know”, where the perfect bodies of the facing couple suggest the romantic urgency of the song for which the piece was named.”
New York art critic Maurice Taplinger, Gallery & Studio, Feb-Mar 2011, pg 7.
Bio
Bonnie was born in New Jersey, in 1965. At the age of 11, she moved with her family to Israel, there she lived for most of her adult life. After an accomplished and demanding career in the corporate world, Bonnie ventured out on artistic endeavors in 2006, a pursuit which led her to the exploration of sculpture, using wire mesh as her primary medium.
Bonnie was fortunate to train with Israeli painter and sculptor, Noam Douieb, and study life sculpture and the mesh technique under the renowned Israeli sculptor, Shulamit Hartal. Today, Bonnie’s training, life experience and her passion to communicate, breathe life into a woven cloth of wire, which transcends into an identity of its own.
In 2009, Bonnie returned to the US with her husband and two sons. She now works out of her home studio in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Statement
“As a student of psychology and enthusiast of human nature, I have always been intrigued by underlying allusions and the universal body language. The genuine truth expressed through the subtlety of the unspoken gesture is my inspiration for sculpture of the human form.
Through these images emerging from a cloth of wire, I strive to capture and share these intimate yet universal expressions. The unimposing transparency of the material is intended to offer a moment or a memory, which each observer can make his/her own.”
