F aucethead (2020) is an exemplary painting that showcases Louise Bonnet's irresistible sense of the absurd, with the artist often depicting the body in extremis. Born in Geneva, Bonnet launched her artist career in 2008 after having worked in illustration and graphic design in Los Angeles, painting first in acrylic followed by oils, a change in medium which opened up new possibilities of colour and volume, diversifying and sharpening her artist practise. The artist’s deft handling of colour and light demonstrates a sensitivity to the formal and atmospheric possibilities of oil paint.

The present work features a figure that bares a surrealist resemblance to René Magritte’s Le Viol (1934), in which a nude female torso is recast as a face, similarly juxtaposing exaggerated ugliness with eerie beauty. The corporeal is a central theme in Bonnet’s work, where emotions of shame, of being out of control and exposed, are expressed through tensions and distortions of the muscles. The blonde head here is transformed into a shower-head with water droplets dripping down - for Bonnet, excess bodily fluids can both pollute and fertilise the landscape around us.

The crux that lies at the heart of Bonnet’s work is the gap between our feeling of, and actual capacity for, control. Corporeal fluids - urine, saliva, sweat, blood or milk – are a recurrent motif in Bonnet's ongoing investigation of our human instinct to control and our desire to contain bodily shame. Walking a fine line between beauty and the grotesque, comedy and tension, Bonnet's figures function as universal stand-ins for unconscious drives and anxieties. Influenced by a range of sources, from Old Master paintings to Classical mythology, Bennet’s figures fluctuate in a kind of gender-blended state, evoking extreme psychological and physiological tension in a playfully confrontational style. Faucethead is Bonnet’s second oil painting to appear at auction, with her previous work The Ice Skater being as sold for a record HK$ 5.6 million in April 2022.

At this year's Venice Biennale, Bonnet was selected to be featured in the exhibit’s main show, titled The Milk of Dreams, her absurdist and unsettling canvases a natural fit for a show named after the Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington’s. Represented by both Max Hetsler and Gagosian, Bonnet has also received her first solo show solo show Onslaught in Hong Kong at Gagosian this year, which is her first in Asia.

伯 內特出生於日内瓦，早年在洛杉磯從事過插畫和平面設計行業，2008年才開展藝術家生涯。伯內特最初是用壓克力彩，後來改為用油彩作畫，這個媒介上的轉變打開了色彩和體積感上新的可能性，使她的藝術實踐更豐富多樣、更敏銳精細。伯內特經常描繪形態極端的身體，《水龍頭》（2020年作）是伯內特的代表作，展現了她對於荒謬的存在有一種無法抗拒的感知力。藝術家對色彩和光線處理得純熟高超，呈現出她極其敏感的天賦，得以充分探索油畫顏料在形式和氛圍上的可能性。

本畫中的人物與雷內·馬格利特的《强暴》（1934）有著相似的超現實主義特質，畫中的裸體女性軀幹被重新塑造成一張臉，同樣將誇張的醜陋與怪異的美麗並置在一起。肉體是伯內特作品的中心主題，透過描繪緊張和扭曲的肌肉，來表達出羞恥、失控和被暴露的感受。此作當中，金髮頭部變形為一個花灑頭，水珠一滴滴墜落——對於伯內特來說，多餘的體液對於我們周圍的景觀來説，既是污染物，又是肥料。

伯內特作品隱含的核心議題是我們對控制的感覺和實際控制能力之間的差距。體液——即尿液、唾液、汗液、血液或乳汁 ——是伯內特作品中反覆出現的主題，她在持續研究人類的控制本能和人類對遏制身體羞恥的訴求。

伯內特的人物普遍代表了無意識的慾望和各種焦慮不安，他們在美麗與怪誕、喜劇與矛盾之間巧妙地取得平衡。伯內特筆下的人物受到一系列事物啓發，包括古典大師繪畫和經典神話，這些人物呈現性別模糊的狀態，帶著狡黠俏皮、充滿挑釁的風格，形成了一種極端的心理與生理張力。《水龍頭》是伯內特第二幅在拍賣會上亮相的油畫，之前的《溜冰者》在2022年4月以破紀錄的560萬港元成交。

在今年的威尼斯雙年展上，伯內特入選主題展覽，展覽題為「夢想之乳」（The Milk of Dreams），是以超現實主義藝術家李奧諾拉·卡林頓的作品命名；伯內特荒誕不經、令人不安的作品恰好完美地切合這個主題。伯內特由麥克斯 · 赫茨勒畫廊及高古軒代理，她今年還在香港高古軒舉辦了首場亞洲個展「衝擊」。