About the Exhibit - Vagabond

Louise Bonnet’s exhibit, Vagabond, is her third exhibit with Nino Mier Gallery in LA, on view from May 15th - June 19th, 2021.

The exhibit consists of 7 oil paintings she created during quarantine. The title of the exhibit, Vagabond, is inspired by the 1985 film. 

“Fittingly for a group of works premiered on the precipice of the world’s tentative reopening, these paintings are inspired in part by a film about an uninhibited wanderer: Agnès Varda’s iconic Vagabond (1985).” (source)

“The film offers a portrait of an enigmatic drifter named Mona who freely traverses the French countryside guided by her own intuition”  (source)

“Bonnet presents here a group of distinct yet thematically connected scenes that collectively grapple with a woman’s oft-thwarted longing to be alone with her thoughts—her desire to remain inscrutable and inaccessible in a world that expects women to be available and accommodating.” (source)

Similar to the film, Bonnet provides a carefully edited collection of ‘scenes’ to share with us, the viewer, which allows us to be involved, but still maintains the privacy and mystery of the characters in her work. 

“Bonnet’s signature helmets of blond hair anonymize the figures and protect them from the viewer’s gaze, which in turn allows for voyeurism without shame”  (source)

About the Artist - Louise Bonnet

Louise Bonnet was born in Geneva, Switzerland and now lives and works in LA. 

“Louise Bonnet’s portraits serve as emotional allegories through which the artist explores feelings of melancholy, loneliness, and nostalgia with a pervasive sense of absurdity and wit.” (source)

“Bonnet’s ambiguously gendered figures draw on a range of sources, from Old Master painting and Surrealism to movies and underground comics” (source) 

You can follow her on Instagram here.