Erik Bonnet offers his take on the superficiality of humankind, men and women with varying aspirations and statuses (appearances, symbols, society, etc.).
Authentic collages that echo the artist's childhood
In addition to an almost emotional aspect, Erik Bonnet plays on all of society’s influence. He builds his portraits through the use/visual interpretation of pop art codes. Many come from his surroundings as a child, from science fiction, detective novels, comics, cinema and TV series. He paints using a spray-can technique typically found in street art, with collages giving way to a background made from genuine old documents.
Bonnet enjoys working with bodies. For him, this is where beauty is perceived, as well as sensuality, elegance, dreams and fantasy, sex and even stress, fear, and societal revolts against the oppressor by the oppressed. Even the "wrapping" of the works is glazed, reflecting the observer like a mirror, so that they themselves become an entity in this fictive superficiality.
Pop art in the spotlight
Immersing himself in the world of pop art, following directly on from Andy Warhol and his use of iconic figures like Marilyn Monroe, Erik Bonnet has constructed his own unique world and visual identity.
His artworks are immediately recognisable, a patchwork background of old papers, yellowed with time, and, on top, drawings that seem, like Lichtenstein’s work, to have been taken straight out of a comic – but which are in fact drawn meticulously by hand.
