BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST

Mandy Bonnell’s works originate in the sampler books passed down from generation to generation as lace templates. Her pin-pricked drawings carry references to traditional floral designs such as the Venetian ‘Punto Rosa’ and to the repetitive rhythms of stitching expressed as grids of tiny pencil marks.

Bonnell was born in the UK in 1957 and trained at Gloucester College of Art and the Royal College of Art, where she attained an MA in Printmaking (1983). Bonnell specialises in drawing and print and in the early 1990s helped establish a self-sustaining print workshop in Lamu, Kenya, with the support of the British Council.

She has researched traditions in botanicals and herbariums whilst on various residencies including: Albers Foundation (2009 and 2014), Minnesota Center for Book Arts (2013) and Oak Spring Garden Foundation (2023). Her artist’s books and unique boxed collections of drawings, collages and botanical samples, were featured in the major exhibition Of Green Leaf Bird and Flower at the Yale Center for British Art in 2014.

Bonnell has had 14 solo exhibitions including the RaMoma, Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi and the Eagle Gallery / EMH Arts, London. Her work is held in public collections including Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; British Council, Kenya; British High Commission, Nairobi; British Library: Modern British Collections; Berry and Coutts Co., London; Fidelity, London; Fitch and Co., London; New York Public Library; RaMoma, Museum of Modern Art, Kenya; TATE Library;Victoria and Albert Museum, London and Yale Center of British Art.

Bonnell is represented by the Eagle Gallery / EMH Arts, London.