JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN - MOVING THROUGH MONOCHROME
JOSHUA BONSON
SKIN - MOVING THROUGH MONOCHROME, 2025
51 x 41 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
REGION
Torres Strait Islands/Darwin, NT
PROVENANCE
Direct from the artist, Cairns, Qld
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW)
STORY
‘SKIN- Moving through Monochrome showcases my totem The Saltwater Crocodile and the land that we are from; The Northern Territory, The Torres Strait and Far North Queensland. An emotional and meaningful body of work teaming with texture, exuberant detail while touching on themes of identity, belonging, enduring associations to place and connection to cultural roots.
‘This exhibition portrays my love of country which is the inspiration of this show. The first works I have created since deciding to leave Darwin after living there all my life and relocating to Cairns, Far North Queensland to finally work full time as an artist in my own art studio and beginning a pivotal chapter in my life and artistic practice. A life of change, risk, new ideas, discovery excitement and reconnection to country and family’.
‘To describe how I feel is simply altering, developing, dynamic and transitional. The use of Black and White signalling a shift to a more spiritual context concentrating on the way light and shadow fall across the surface, manipulating light, space and hue. The result is freeing – without the complexities of colour focusing on the use of visual languages of shape, form and line while experimenting with texture, mark-making and symbolic meaning. It is fascinating how shades of black and white evoke such powerful emotion while embracing the simplicity and the beauty within’.
SKIN portrays my totem, The Saltwater Crocodile, my ancestors, the oceans and land where I come from. Strong passion and driven design run throughout the completed works, focusing the viewers’ attention on the subject, concept and technique’.
The Saltwater Crocodiles scaly cover; up close and personal in such close proximity that the viewer can see the individual scales of the skin texturally rendered for close scrutiny. The armoured skin is cleverly shown by building up the serrations of paint, creating an element of flow, scaled perfection applied layer by layer with brushes, pallet knives and bare hands generously floating on watery surfaces. ‘I want the viewer to feel the presence of the reptile, run their hands across its skin’.
Bonsons work captures the essence of the reptiles natural casing through his unique painterly style that is largely monochromatic and abstractly expressionistic. The scales of the Saltwater Crocodile are his own personal totem and his close up inspection of this aspect of the animal can be interpreted as a landscape seen from a great distance and up close of rocks, water and sand – a terrain harvested from both the Northern Territory, where he was born and The Torres Strait where he roots his heritage.
The close – up investigation of its scaly skin becomes his method of putting in place the affiliations that define his very own skin. By getting the viewer up close to The Saltwater Crocodile’s skin, Bonson enables the audience to know its strength, and see the country from where it came, where he comes from too.
Heritage guides the story captured, a personal story, a portrayal of uniqueness, solidarity, and an acknowledgement of bloodlines.
Dwell in Bonsons cultural mind space and enjoy an artistic close encounter with the reptilian kind embracing the simplicity and the beauty within.
EXHIBITED
SKIN - Moving through Monochrome, August 2025, Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art]
ARTIST PROFILE
