Fabio Bonini - Tangle

Artist: Fabio Bonini (1965, Italy) – contemporary Italian painter

Title: Tangle
Year: 2026

Technique
Oil on heavy cardboard prepared with shellac.
The cardstock is sealed with several coats of shellac, which harden it and create a slightly glossy and durable surface, on which the thick oil layers and drips remain very well defined.

Dimensions:
70 × 50 cm (height × width), without frame.

Company
Signed and dated on the back by the artist.

Edition
A single work, not part of an edition.

Origin:
– artist's studio, Parma (Italy).
Direct sale by the author.

Documentation:
– Certificate of authenticity issued and signed by the artist, including title, year, technique and dimensions.

Description of the work
Tangle presents a half-length female figure, immersed in a dense and irregular background. The face is frontal, the gaze direct: the flesh and hair blend with reds, greens, ochres and blacks, in a very thick material that does not seek smoothness. The features of the face emerge from a real tangle of drips and impasto, as if the image had been carved into the surface rather than laid on top.

The shellac preparation intensifies the effect of gloss and layering: light slides over the white and gold areas, while other parts absorb color. The result is a tense, emotional portrait in which the figure never appears decorative but almost "framed" in its own material.

Conditions:
Artwork in excellent condition, new, never framed or displayed outside the studio. No restoration. Any slight irregularities, craquelure, or differences in sheen are due to the technique (thick oil on shellac-treated cardboard) and are an integral part of the work.

Shipping
The artwork will be shipped rolled up in a sturdy cardboard tube, well packaged and protected with appropriate materials, with tracked shipping. Frame not included.

Artist biography
Fabio Bonini (born 1965, Italy) is a figurative-expressionist painter. He graduated with a Master of Art diploma from the P. Toschi Art Institute in Parma.
He has long worked in restoration and in the antiques sector, focusing on the conservation of churches, historic buildings and cultural heritage: this has given rise to his attention to materials, surfaces and the traces of time.
The artist works predominantly in oil on shellac-prepared cardboard, with a physical painting made of thick layers, drips, and controlled accidents. Recent works use the female body as a field of tension between form and dissolution, avoiding an illustrative or narrative approach.