A Pilgrim's Progress: Drawings by Peter Bonner a Conversation About Drawing

In 2004 Australian artist Peter Bonner embarked on a period of intense drawing. He drew in New York, the American Southwest and the Australian desert and he drew constantly. Something altered. A day in the life of the desert held lessons in how to see; memories from his early past came into the picture. In Bonner's words: "It's hard to speak just the right amount of the truth of what happened and just the right amount of the magnetic, so that people really want to hear about it- and it's hard to find a way to do it quickly so the moment isn't lost-" In the Australian winter of 2018, an exhibition of Bonner's drawings took place at the School of Clay and Art (SoCA) in Melbourne. It provided the occasion for an extraordinary conversation about drawing among a group of Melbourne artists. With the feeling of shared, unfolding experience, A Pilgrim's Progress documents both exhibition and conversation.

Peter Bonner arrived in the U.S. in 1998 to study with peers of Pollock and de Kooning and other members of the New York School, and was later drawn to the Aboriginal artists of his native Australia. Reckoning with these opposing influences through the practice of drawing- a preoccupation lasting more than a decade- he developed an artistic process and vocabulary that has been the foundation of his work since. Bonner, who lives and works in New York City, has exhibited in the U.S., Europe and Australia.