Sonia is a Still Life Artist with a keen eye for detail and a talent for the idiosyncratic.
She has become well known for creating iconic imagery questioning the viewer to reassess the pictures placed before them.
Her Harm Less series, a selection of weapons created from plant life has been widely publicized and became synonymous with the hopeful ideology of a world without violence.
Differentiating her work from the wider market is an innate intellectual element ingrained in her creations. Via a depth of thought intrinsic to the compositions or simply the skill involved in the crafting of the objects the imagery is recognizable as distinctly hers.
Her work encompasses all forms of materials and objects forged with an attention to detail often minute.
Crossing the borders between both art and industry her imagery is highly sort as collectable items but also commissioned by corporate entities to create pictorial narratives that encapsulate the intrinsic nature of a brand or idea.
With a background stemming from a degree in Industrial Design, Sonia’s work has a foundation in both design and engineering. She is a qualified welder, founder and model maker. Post her studies she spent 10 years designing large scale environments for Fashion Festival Runways, luxury interiors for events and retail, along with smaller lifestyle products for the mass market including tap ware, lighting, home wares and fixtures. She then moved into film, designing sets before assisting German Artist, Sarah Illenberger in Berlin. On returning to Australia she forged a unique path of her own building a portfolio that has garnered her worldwide attention before relocating to New York where her clients have included Hermes, Lanvin, Loewe, MoMA, Ikea, The New Yorker, Tiffany, Nike and The Wall Street Journal.
In a clear moment of united world confusion – how do we ground ourselves?
Where do we go to seek solace, how do we make statements without raising our voices?
I believe strength and unity comes from the small things - the conversation you have with a stranger while walking your dog, the fruit and vegetables you grow and share with a neighbour.
In my art practice and my daily life, I seek for beauty where classically speaking others may not see it, I paint pictures formed of found things and narrated by light. I speak in a visual language.
The Irish philosopher John O’Donohue says we often make the mistake of equating time with space, but time is unshaped – that the imagination we bring to the new dawn will surprise and bless us with new things.
My time in Lanzarote will be spent building connections, with locals, with the land, and with found materials. From these I aim to build a collection of work that speaks of place and time – simple reminders of being good, of being kind, of growth - a statement painted without words, built from the gifts of an island.