Features

There are more glimmers of surprise in an enduring work of art than there are motes of dust in a sunny glade, whether we consider the streaming folds of Christ's robe in a Piero della Francesca or the stubborn arrogance on the lip of a merchant in Holbein. But these are masters; it's a genuine miracle when young painters glean the lessons from the past and make firm their decision to push against the grain and assert their own idea of beauty and form. To create coherence out of a world so strewn with chaos is like heeling back a thick velvet curtain to flood a room that had been submerged in funereal gloom with saving sunlight.

To my mind this issue's featured artist, Bethany Bonfiglio (in her second appearance), has obtained a deftness of skill with brush and oil that astonishes and forces us to rub our eyes. The sharpness of her paintings are like precision cuts upon the mind. There is a power of decision, of right, instinctual calculation, and a virtuosity uniquely rare in an undergraduate student. In Bethany Bonfiglio's work you will find gorgeous coloring and a charismatic handling of negative space; each of her portraitures are delicate concoctions of Mannerist paint, seemingly inspired by artists as varied as Bronzino and El Greco.

Take the portrait of the artist's father: where a Parmigianino might have delineated a well-heeled collector amid the luxurious trappings of his profession, Bonfiglio captures the sturdy paterfamilias in the common air, slightly baffled by his daughter's attention perhaps, just before turning his attention to the distributor cap of an automobile. His dense, rounded flesh is packed tight, a substantial man with his long history scrawled on his slabby arms. He is stolid and aggressively healthy; the marvelous coloring of his skin, where we detect a tinge of sunburn about the arms, and his casual wear, informs us of the summer season (along with the green stabs of lush foliage in the background), and it is clear that he is comfortable in the outdoors. With his handsomely brushed hair and well-trimmed beard, he cuts a fastidious figure from the neck up; and when we observe his reflection in the automobile's chrome, the assiduous nature of the man is clear. But we can't fail to the detect the shadow beneath the crook of his arm, and the skull-and-crossbones tattoo above the hinge of his elbow, a memento mori that makes it clear that the artist is under no illusion of permanence. This a reminder that amid the corrupted currents of the world, art can serve as a resounding YES to the great yammering NO that threatens to overwhelm us all.

This is no pot of paint flung at the canvas, but an art hard-worked by long hours in the studio, clearly evident in the repressed mischief of the young woman in June, elucidated with a John Currin-like élan as she inclines her head wryly; or in Homage, in which the stunning composition of a conical vase gives sprout to wondrous flowers, which flare like the discs of a frill-necked lizard in mid-cry. Bonfiglio's painted world inspires the viewer to conjure superlatives; such is the extraordinary skill and joy in her art.

There are more glimmers of surprise in an enduring work of art than there are motes of dust in a sunny glade, whether we consider the streaming folds of Christ's robe in a Piero della Francesca or the stubborn arrogance on the lip of a merchant in Holbein. But these are masters; it's a genuine miracle when young painters glean the lessons from the past and make firm their decision to push against the grain and assert their own idea of beauty and form. To create coherence out of a world so strewn with chaos is like heeling back a thick velvet curtain to flood a room that had been submerged in funereal gloom with saving sunlight.

Bethany Bonfiglio is a fourth-year Illustration major at the School of Visual Arts. She graduated from the High School of Art and Design in 2018, where she also studied Illustration. Bonfiglio has also studied at the Art Students League since 2015. Her artwork focuses on portraiture, emphasizing the relationships with the people she loves. Her work has been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the P.S Art exhibition in 2018, as well as an exhibition at Christie’s auction house through the Studio in a School program in 2017.

Edwin Rivera is the Editor of the Match Factory and a Writing Instructor at the School of Visual Arts. His most recent play, Come Rain, Come Hurricane, is currently in development with the New Jersey Play Lab.