b. 1958, Copenhagen, DK
Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK
The frenetic energy of Bonde's painterly gestures on mirror-foil are dissident and at times self-destructive. His gestures are referring simply to the notion of a physical movement that leaves a material residue. For Bonde there is only the beauty of the gesture and its residue and any 'image' is usually compromised because of them.
To date, Bonde's main focus has been to define a frame or surface of some kind, and then to deface it. Expanding the notion of painting onto images, it is perhaps arguable that the brushstrokes themselves are not painted upon the mirror (as an object) but upon the reflection itself. A treatment that declares the reflection as an object in its own right, rather than a mere representation of the thing(s) being reflected.
Bonde creates these works by painting directly onto a mirrored surface and again impairs them with his stylistically familiar desecrations. Though some mirrors are still relatively open, many are obscured to the point of barely being able to reflect back anything at all. Bonde has said that there are no illusions in his work, that 'it is all surface' however the constant interplay between the viewer and their reflection (or lack thereof) unquestionably adds a dimension of introspection that, for the viewer at least, implies something that goes beyond ‘surface’ alone.
Peter Bonde (b. 1958, Copenhagen, DK; lives and works in Copenhagen, DK) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Art (1976-82). He was a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts’ painting school from 1996 to 2005 and represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 1999 (with Jason Rhoades). In 1990, Bonde had a solo exhibition at Galerie Sophia Ungers in Cologne where he lived for a period of time. The artist is represented in all major Danish art museums including The Danish National Gallery, ARoS, the art museum Trapholt, Esbjerg Art Museum, as well as Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany and in private collections Elgiz Collection, Turkey and Axa Northern Stern, Cologne. Bonde lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.