Bonita Bub (b. 1982, lives Sydney) is a sculptor who produces elevated replicas of industrial equipment and furniture in materials and with processes upgraded and more highly-refined than their expressly functional, mass-produced prototypes. Her selection of and improvements to found design (stainless steel over mild steel, perfected welds etc.) are part of a subtle conversation between form, function and aesthetics in which she draws extensively on her own technical skill and labour.
Initially, Bub’s work appears ego-less but it becomes quickly apparent that it is motivated by sophisticated and idiosyncratic formalist concerns and an acute sense of beauty. Her close attention to colour (protective coatings, sometimes predetermined by industrial colour standards) and the occasional appearance of canvas or canvas-like materials reveals her practice as invested in the field of painting within sculptural dimensions.
Bub was awarded a Master of Fine Arts (Painting) at Sydney College of the Arts in 2012. Work towards her Masters degree included twelve months (2011) in Vienna in the Heimo Zobernig Class at the Akademie der bildenden Künste.