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Bonifacho’s canvases are graphic renderings of symbols which are often painted in highly contrasting colours, using layers of rich, textured oil paint with a luminous surface. Bonifacho's canvases have finished, painted sides and are on stretched canvas.
IN NUCLEO SERIES
1996-2024
In Nucleo, the concept for this body of work, begs to be translated loosely as “in essence” or “in sum”. The phrase can also denote the energy within the core of an atom or nuclear generator. It can even connote “nuclear family”, although that would be a stretch. If the meaning is taken exactly from the Latin, it means the “inside of a nut”—perhaps alluding to the thoughts that roil inside the brain of a crazy artist. An intentional sardonic, self-deprecation like this would fit well with what I know about Bonifacho’s world view and his personality.
Messages can be discovered in the majority of the In Nucleo paintings. Some adages have been inscribed through layers of paint with the end of a brush; others are meticulously created letter by letter. Some can be read easily; others because of the low contrast between black and khaki or black and cobalt blue cannot. To paint the equivalent of a one-minute Rick Mercer diatribe takes many days of labour and solitary confinement - such an obsession is akin to madness.
Bonifacho’s attitude towards meaning is: What you see is what you get. It’s up to you to decide what it means. I’ll never tell you. - Ann Rosenberg 2010