To Summers End in Gambia

July 11 - August 8, 2023

We are thrilled to announce that ARTPOWHER Contemporary has been invited to participate in Foundations, a new online fair curated by Artsy, that spotlights fresh works from tastemaking galleries known for supporting emerging artists. This year’s fair includes presentations from more than 100 galleries across four continents, featuring rising and underrecognized talents from across the globe.​

For this event, we're pleased to showcase a solo presentation by Shannon Bono: To Summers End in Gambia.
 

Shannon Bono’s latest series entitled To Summers End in Gambia,  is documentation of her experiences and events occurring in last 6 months of 2021. This intimate series explores themes of love, loss as well as witnessing the power of West African divination.

Bono’s work depicts experiences of black womanhood from her own perspective, tying in African culture and spirituality as a means of understanding and taking up space. More notably in this new series is the presence of still life such as plants and mystical objects used in magical rituals. She wishes to look beyond the images of still life and explore their symbolism which is further defined by her experiences and the titles of the paintings. Figuration is still a staple within her paintings in attempts to tell relatable stories and make peace with these unique situations.
Bono works with a mixture of acrylic, oil and spray paints. The repeating patterns are created using stencils to replicate the repeating patterns of Dutch wax fabrics. She layers these patterns with 3D liners adding an extra layer on top of canvas and wood panels.

Shannon Bono has been recently part of Windrush: ’Portraits of a Generation’ with His Majesty The King. A BBC documentary celebrating the accomplishments of the Windrush generation.

Marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush to British shores in 1948, the documentary follows a remarkable project spearheaded by His Majesty The King.

The ten portraits are on display in an exhibition titled Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh until mid September and will travel to the National Portrait Gallery in October 2023.

Shanno Bono painted a portrait of Linda Haye OBE. Haye worked for the civil service in Jamaica before her mother convinced her that she would have more opportunities in the UK. She arrived in October 1958, setting her sights on her lifelong dream of studying sociology, and graduated in 1972. She dedicated her life to youth and community services and was the first woman of colour to be a full-time member of the Police.

Portraits Of A Generation, on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer - watch here

Read here - The Guardian : Windrush generation celebrated in a series of 10 portraits in pictures

Artist Bio