Artist Vito Bonanno Taps into the Daily Emotional Social Challenges of Living and Working with Autism

Internationally recognized artist Vito Bonanno taps into the daily emotional and social challenges of living with autism, placing his innermost feelings onto canvas. The New England-based artists’ work is image and concept driven and imbedded in his personal philosophy. His art contains the essence of his life, feelings, thoughts and dreams, coupled around objects or topics that “get stuck in his head”, including traffic lights, grids, ceiling fans, graffiti and pop culture.

Vito Bonanno

Vito Bonanno has exhibited in solo exhibitions during Art Basel Week in Miami, Florida, Umbrella Arts Gallery, NYC and Akus Gallery, at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) in Willimantic, CT. His numerous group exhibitions include a sold out exhibition at Metro Curates, NYC in 2014, Uarts & CT Places in Hartford, CT; New England ADA in Boston, Mass; The Outsider Art Fair in New York and Intuit Outsider Art Fair in Chicago.

‘King Kong’ 2014, Obsessions & Meditations series. Made with aerosol, acrylic, craypas, paint marker, archival glitter on canvas 53.5 “ x 63.5” framed.

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, D.C. 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.

‘Ghost Town on Davenport Avenue’

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.

‘Red’ 2017, Dead Trivia series

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.”

Solo exhibition, “Unfiltered V: Vito Bonanno Riding with the Train Girls”, at Akus Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University (ESCU) 2012

May 24, 2014  was the Opening Reception of Bonanno’s Solo Exhibition, Truck’n With Vito!, at Umbrella Arts Gallery, NYC. 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.

Awe in Autism, magazine interview

Current and ongoing, Vito continues to work with various artist facilitators in his studio in Clinton, CT expanding his knowledge of materials and techniques and further developing his creative vision. 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.

Truck’N with Vito! Traveling Art & Autism Awareness Campaign, 2014

Vito was chosen to participate in the prestigious global art competition Art Olympia in Tokyo, Japan 2015. Skatepark Krusty from Obsessions & Meditations was a First Round Winner. Chosen also to feature his work in Art for Autism at Pan American Art Projects Gallery in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida and was featured on Saatchi Art Homepage twice in a Row July 2015 hand-picked by Saatchi Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson. In 2015 Bonanno was one of 16 artists in the United States selected for a prestigious exhibition of previous awardees from the VSA Emerging Artists Program in the Kennedy Center’s Hall of Nations with sponsorship from Volkswagen Group of America. This exhibition was showcased as part of the celebrations for the 25th Anniversary of the ADA and 40th Anniversary of VSA, and included the work of select artists who represented the past 13 years of the VSA Emerging Young Artist Program; Curated by Stephanie Moore, ‘Daffy Goes to Waterbury with a Ninja Turtle’ and ‘SECR Toilet’ were chosen to be part of the exhibition.

VSA Emerging Artists Program Exhibition. Curated by Stephanie Moore in the Kennedy Center’s Hall of Nations, showcased as part of the celebrations for the 25th Anniversary of the ADA and 40th Anniversary of VSA, 2016.

In 2016 and 2017 Bonanno shifted gears and began creating a prolific collection of works that propelled him into a variety of gallery shows, US exhibitions and arts projects including Art Expo New York; Love Art Gallery, CT; Lotta Studio in New Haven, CT; Art Access Studio in Ohio; DADD Showcase and his most recent alignment with ArtLifting, which is a non-for-profit art organization that empowers artists living with disabilities through the celebration and sale of their artwork. ArtLifting is about creating opportunity, empowerment, and validation.

Exhibition at Lotta Studio in New Haven, Connecticut

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.

3artists exhibition at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Artist Presentation with Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Assistant Professor of Special Education at Lesley University; as part of the Council for Exceptional Children Annual Convention in Boston, April 2017.

The New England-based artists work is image and concept driven and imbedded in his personal philosophy. His art contains the essence of his life, feelings, thoughts and dreams, coupled around objects or topics that “get stuck in his head”, including traffic lights, grids, ceiling fans, graffiti and pop culture. For more information about this artist, for inquiries or to commission a piece contact vito@vitobonanno.com / visit http://www.vitobonanno.com/

“Twin Set” traffic light paintings, both of which were sold in 2015. The piece on the left ‘Afterthoughts’ is in the private collection of Katerina Wagner, Editor at Miami Art Scene; on the right ‘Memories & Dreams’ hangs in the permanent collection of the University of Miami Center for Autism and Related Disabilities – ( UM-NSU CARD), an organization that provides support and assistance with the goal of optimizing the potential of people with autism and related disabilities.