Her paintings embody an afrofemcentrist consciousness, sharing muted narratives and projecting the black women’s lived experience through her own lens. She is invested in producing layered, figurative, compositions embedded with symbolism that centralise black womanhood as a source of knowledge and understanding. Enamoured by African spiritually, Christian iconography and renaissance art she employs its purpose of cultural impact for an improved society within her works. Bono explores the internal body as well as the external, by merging the design of notable fabrics from Africa with biological structures, chemical processes and more recently the unseen world displaying divination for the foundations of her storytelling. She uses the anatomy as a second canvas in the foreground, and views the body as a powerful signifier that provokes dialogue, playing with pose, gesture and the gaze to challenge reality.
Bono uses figuration in an attempt to tell relatable stories, make sense of and peace with personal and shared experiences, but the power of her work urges us to look beyond the imagery and explore its symbolism and truth. Her world is rich and colourful but there is nothing superfluous about it; underneath it all, there is a simplicity that permeates it completely and authentically, a solid structure connecting and supporting the variegated elements of society, identity and selfhood.
Bono received her MA in Art & Science from Central Saint Martin’s University and her Associate Fellowship in higher education from the University of the Arts London.
