Miami Art Scene™: January 2025

Vito Bonanno

Vito Bonanno is an internationally collected artist who lives and works on the CT shoreline. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions at Spectrum Miami during Art Basel in Miami, FL, Umbrella Arts Gallery, NYC and Akus Gallery, Willimantic, CT. His numerous group exhibitions include a sold out exhibition at Metro Curates, NYC in 2014, Uarts & CT Places, Hartford, CT, New England ADA, Boston, Ma, The Outsider Art Fair, NY and Intuit Outsider Art Fair, Chicago.

'God Goes to a Jets Game', from Bonanno's Monoprints & Mixed Media series

His outsider creative style results in a mix of hyper-focused autism inspired aesthetic blending street art, pop culture and dreams from his unfiltered world to the canvas. His inspiration is to tap into the daily emotional and social challenges of living with autism, which fuels this hybrid dream-state aesthetic, where conceptual and abstract expressionism styles collide to form enchanting and powerful results. Image and concept driven and imbedded in his personal philosophy, his art contains the essence of his life, feelings, thoughts, fears and dreams. His unique view of the world provides a seemingly endless well of inspiration that fills his head with images and concepts until they spill over onto the canvas bursting on the scene in vibrant colors and hard to ignore imagery that can harbor obvious, but often secret messages.

'King Kong', Obsessions & Meditations series - made with aerosol, acrylic, craypas, paint marker, archival glitter on canvas, 53.5 “ x 63.5” framed. This art piece was acquired by Amazon, they purchased 6 of Bonanno's original pieces for one of their corporate buildings in Seattle.

In 2009, Bonanno won an Award of Excellence in a juried competition for young people with disabilities, produced by VSA Arts and sponsored by Volkswagen in 2009. He was named one of 15 emerging young artists with disabilities and was honored during the artist reception in Washington, DC. His winning pieces, “Ghost Town on Davenport Avenue” was exhibited at the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and then was part of a traveling exhibition that went on a two year nationwide tour of university and independent galleries. Additionally, a second winning piece titled “Southhaven People”, was on exhibit at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. before also partaking in the nationwide traveling exhibition that ran through September 2011.

Due to a lack of accessible art education programs for college age adults with autism and other similar neuro-diversities, Bonanno began private art classes at Creative Arts Workspace in New Haven in 2006 and has continued his formal training via private instruction from a variety of formally trained artists.

In January 2012, Bonanno unveiled his first SOLO EXHIBITION, “Unfiltered V: Vito Bonanno Riding with the Train Girls”, at Akus Gallery at Eastern CT State University which included works on paper, canvas, video pieces, a student-artist interactive mural project and installations. Akus Gallery Director, Elizabeth Peterson stated, “The characters, objects and ideas that inhabit Vito Bonanno’s work act and interact in striking ways. Caught within the grids and map-like structures he imagines, they are often in a struggle between multiple worlds. He has found a way to tap in the intensity of focus and insight afforded him through autism to unleash a formidable creative power and vision.”

'Girl Crush' (2014), aerosol, acrylic, craypas, paint pen, marker on canvas, 29.5" H x 29.5" W framed

May 24, 2014 was the Opening Reception of Bonanno’s Solo Exhibition, Truck’n With Vito! , at Umbrella Arts Gallery, NYC. Here Bonanno presented his Truck’n with Vito! series of 50 intimate pieces on canvas. Of special note is that the reception was the kickoff party for a traveling art education and awareness campaign of the same name, Truck’n With Vito!, Bonanno and his team transformed a typical van into a pop up art gallery that traveled through CT earlier in the year. From May through July the roaming art gallery came to New York and made stops at various locations in the city, including Bushwick Open Studios, sharing Bonanno’s art and spreading the word for the need for increased accessible higher education in the arts for adults with autism.

'Red' (2017), spray paint, acrylic paint, paint marker, and artist marker on canvas, 36″H x 24″W x 1.5″D

For many years, Bonanno was represented in CT and NY by veteran NYC Art Dealer and co-owner of New York City based Umbrella Arts Gallery, Margaret Bodell. Bodell helped define and expand the outsider movement during the 90’s in her East Village gallery by including artists with autism alongside contemporary artists, bringing to light the unique visual arts gift that only the autistic can tap into such as Michael Madore, Jessica Park and Ricky Hagedorn. Bodell encouraged Bonanno to collaborate with “mainstream” artist’s one-on-one-in order to help him round out his artistic voice and philosophy, as well as to encourage him to continue to explore additional artistic mediums. These collaborations have resulted in a discovery of the wide range of artistic styles that Bonanno is capable of and have furthered his independent and unedited artistic voice. Bodell believes Bonanno has a rare form of extreme talent.

Currently Vito is promoted and represented by Kat Wagner of Miami Art Scene in Florida, and ArtLifting.com.

At present Vito continues to work independently and with various artist facilitators, expanding his knowledge of materials and techniques and further developing his creative vision from his studio located in Old Saybrook, CT.

Bonanno was diagnosed with PDD/Autism just before his 4th birthday. Because he was language delayed, his parents and teachers developed strategies that tapped into his high visual acuity, utilizing storyboard styles to relay academic and social information. He was also encouraged to draw in storyboard format to express his feelings. The storyboard grid remains prominent in his work and studio preparation today and is a poignant reminder of a boy who was trapped in his own mind. Through the tireless work of professionals and strong family support, he has been able to develop into a high functioning young man who has learned to transform his internal existence into a powerful artistic expression.