By Brenda Díaz de la Vega
Ana Bonamico with her installation, “The Hidden Pearl.” Photo by Leo Diaz.
From her earliest, intuitive experiments as a child growing up in Buenos Aires, Ana Bonamico has understood art as a way of making sense of the world. Today her work is marked by color and texture that feel like extensions of the body, blurring the boundary between the real and the emotional. Influenced by women artists who embraced imperfection, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Lygia Clark, and Yayoi Kusama, she seeks a balance between intimacy and impact, between the subtle and the forceful. “Memory and time are two concepts that are very present in my work,” says the Santiago-based artist. “In some way, painting for me is a way not to forget.”
Her creative universe extends beyond the studio. Married to photographer Tom Ghiorzo, whose eye she deeply admires, Bonamico moves through an interdisciplinary world where inspiration is constant. After collaborations that include Chanel Number 5, Samsung, and Golden Goose, she’s found that the charge between image, body, and space form a single practice. This season, that sense of open, sensory freedom arrived at Bal Harbour Village, where Bonamico recently unveiled a large-scale installation during Miami Art Week. “For a long time, I felt the need to explain the work, to build a narrative that held it up. Today I’m interested in the opposite,” she says. The invitation is clear: Let the work breathe, expand, and meet viewers on their own terms.” Here, we chat about the project, holiday travel, her signature style, and what’s on her gifting list.
Bonamico with her mural in Bal Harbour Village, which debuted during Miami Art Week. Photo by Leo Diaz.
What does fashion mean to you?
Fashion has always been, for me, a wonderful form of expression: a language that lets you play with identity, aesthetics, and emotions in an immediate way. I find constant inspiration there—in fabrics, colors, cuts, in how a gesture or a look can transform a space or a mood. For me, fashion isn’t separate from art; it’s a territory where creativity unfolds and crosses with life, and that nourishes my work and my gaze in every project.
Do you have any favorite brands?
Chanel, Prada, Hermès, and Burberry. But most of all, I love the history of each designer; I like to know the background of what I’m consuming.
Where will you spend the holidays?
Punta del Este in Uruguay.
What do you always take when you travel?
Fewer and fewer things; over time, I’m learning to travel lighter. I can never go without a white shirt and denim.
Le 19M in Paris.
Do you have a studio ritual?
It is very simple: mate, a candle, music, and a silenced phone.
What do you love most about working with Chanel?
I had the opportunity to visit Le 19M in Paris, and I loved meeting the people, seeing the artistic processes, the dedication, and the hours that go into each piece.
What is a product you can’t live without?
My Chanel Number 5 perfume.
What are you planning to gift for Christmas?
I’d like to give my husband a Saint Laurent jacket. And for my daughter, Bambi, a travel easel so we can paint together. I also love Stella McCartney’s kids line—and her vision of fashion in relation to the planet.
