An exhibition of paintings and illustrations by Raymond Bonilla, a nationally recognized artist and member of the faculty in the Department of Visual Arts and New Media, will be held at the Fredonia Technology Incubator.
An artist’s reception that will feature the inaugural showing of Bonilla paintings that feature dramatizations of people going through their everyday tasks will be held on Wednesday, March 22, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the incubator’s gallery. Light refreshments will be served at the reception, which is free and open to the public. The exhibition will open on Monday, March 20.
Bonilla, who earned a B.F.A. degree in New Media and Illustration at Fredonia in 2005 and a M.F.A. from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, in 2009, describes his work as “a visual journey of the human condition.”
People are recorded going about their daily routines - sitting on the subway, shopping, reading a newspaper on a park bench, waiting at the racetrack or eating a piece of pie. Bonilla’s paintings and illustrations are often dramatic contrasts of light and dark - the last rays of sun on an otherwise gray urban scene or a row of historic houses on Buffalo’s Richmond Street. Bright saturated reds and greens in garments, an orange subway seat or a pink sunset on a house pop out of his images.
Numerous honors and awards Bonilla has received include: Best in Show in the Great Lakes Emerging Artist Competition, finalist in the Artists Magazine Annual Art Competition, gold medals in advertising from both Society of Illustrators of New York and Los Angeles and inclusion in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual. His illustration clients include: Netflix; Saveur, Cruising World and The New Yorker magazines, as well as Fantasy Flight Games and the Department of Theatre and Dance at Fredonia.
Bonilla, who paints at his home base in Buffalo, received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching in 2016. He began teaching at Fredonia in 2009.
The gallery at the incubator, located at 214 Central Ave., Dunkirk, is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Bonilla exhibition will remain on display through May 12.
For more information on Bonilla’s exhibition or to register for the reception, contact 716-680-6099, email or visit the event web page.
