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Thursday, March 12th, 2015

ARTCRITICAL PICK: Peter Bonner at William Holman Gallery

Peter Bonner is an artist who packs a lot of history into his paintings, drawings and collages: art history, personal history, you name it. His works have gloriously redolent titles like In the Gobi Desert (from 50 places to have sex before you die, #31), Some Way of Turning Back from the Dull Tin Roof, and, pictured above, The Awful Fact of it Glinting in the Meager Light. These draw upon fellow Australian Tim Winton’s short stories of adolescent life and the restorative capacity of nature, as well as Bonner’s own recollected experiences of a troubled upbringing. Such themes merge and submerge in a plethora of idioms that are highly personal while channeling the masters of expressionism, from Chaim Soutine through Willem de Kooning and George McNeil to an occasional nod in the direction of a contemporary like Bill Jensen. Whether the results are timeless or merely turn their back on time, there is no question that Bonner instills his vigorous, luscious touch with narrative urgency. DAVID COHEN

Peter Bonner, The Awful Fact of it Glinting in the Meager Light, 2015. Oil on Panel, 9 x 10 inches. Courtesy of William Holman Gallery

on view through March 21 at 65 Ludlow Street (Corner of Grand), 212.475.1500

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