Born in 1952 in Geneva, Switzerland Patricia Jacomella Bonola made a Master in Fashion Design in 1974 at the Istituto Marangoni in Milan, Italy and later the Master of Fine Arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti Brera, also in Milan. Afterwards, she participated in the After-Degree Program at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Urbino and the research program of the Istituto Internazionale di Grafica in Venice.
From 1991 to 2011 Patricia formed the artist duo J & W Management Consulting with Maria Walther. The name was an ironic comment on the capitalisation of the art market. Correspondingly, the two artists wanted to advance new intercultural forms of trade and investment with their interventions. Performances and installations pointed at the inequality of artistic outcome of the art-market, depending on the region of production. However, the actions not only increased the awareness of the problem, but supported artists in the third world or immigrants from there. Moreover, they questioned the value of artworks and phenomena of the society.
Also in her solo carrier, Patricia deals with social-critical themes such as environmental pollution, economic mismatches, migration, globalisation and parallel realities. Hereby, she explores different materials and media to create installations, performances and participative art events. One example for her value criticism is her sculpture “Expiation” from 2020. With an oversized ball of wool, she points to short-lived fashion and its global consequences. “Expiation” is our Artwork of the Month / February 2025. Her video installation “Au Coucher du soleil” (2018) focusses on globalisation, too. Even though the title implies a romantic sunset, the video of the same name – our Artwork of the Month / May 2020 – is turned on a container ship.
During her long artistic practice, Patricia had numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many group shows, mainly in Switzerland, but also in Germany, Italy, Turkey and United States. Her artworks are part of public and private collections. She won several prizes, for example the “Pro Helvetia Cahiers d’artistes”. Moreover, she was awarded with working grants and had residencies in New York, Berlin, Paris and Cairo. Beside her artistic activities, she was in charge of the Visual arts association Switzerland and member of the editorial board of the Art magazine “Schweizer Kunst” (Swiss Art). Currently, she is jury member for the Apexart Open Call NYC Exhibition.
At the moment, there are three exhibitions scheduled for 2025: the group exhibition “AIMAGINE – Photographie et imagine générative” in the Hangar Art-Centre Brussels (24th January – 15th June), “Circolare – Kunst im Kreislauf” in the Künstlerhaus S11 Solothurn (21st February – 15th March) and “Here and Now” in the Shedhalle Zug (7th – 16th March).
Patricia lives and works in Zug, Switzerland.