[caption id="attachment_37204" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Félix Bonilla Gerena, Madam of My Dreams, 2014. Oil on canvas, 53 x 72 inches.[/caption]
The Tripoli Gallery East Hampton will debut a solo exhibition by Puerto Rican artist Félix Bonilla Gerena, “For Lisa,” for the official launch of the gallery’s East Hampton location at 87 Newtown Lane.
“For Lisa” will open on Saturday, April 25 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and will remain on view through May 17.
Tripoli Patterson, owner and director of the Tripoli Gallery, first exhibited Mr. Bonilla Gerena in a pop-up, solo exhibition in 2008 in Bridgehampton. The following year, after opening the Tripoli Gallery space on Jobs Lane in Southampton, Mr. Bonilla Gerena was a part of the gallery’s showcase, “The Mysterious Bajura.” “For Lisa” marks the artists fifth solo exhibition with Mr. Patterson.
Mr. Bonilla’s love of beauty is conveyed through depictions of the female form, tropical flowers and seascapes from Puerto Rico. His darker undertones speak to the dichotomy of life in Puerto Rico, a lush, natural beauty surrounded by bleaker cultural realities; an escape for some, while home to many others. “For Lisa” is dedicated to the late Lisa de Kooning, who encouraged the artist to further abstract his forms.
Mr. Bonilla Gerena was born in 1968, and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the School of Plastic Arts at the University of Puerto Rico in 1992, going on to study at San Carlos University in Mexico and Autonomous University in Caracas, Venezuela. The artist’s paintings have been exhibited throughout Puerto Rico, as well as at the Museum of the Americas in Miami and the Museo de las Casas Reales in the Dominican Republic, and in several private and permanent collections.
For more information, please visit tripoligallery.com or call (631) 377-3715.
