Love Letters to Costanza Bonarelli

Hong Kong 2023 Galerie Marguo in partnership with K11 Musea solo exhibition

In multiple paintings depicting ethereal comets and erotic sea creatures, this series pays tribute to Constanza Bonarelli. Born to a poor but important Sienese family, Bonarelli was married to a studio assistant of Gianlorenzo Bernini. At the age of 22, she became the lover of the famous artist, whose bust of Bonarelli constitutes one of the rare personal works ever made by the artist. In a fit of jealousy, Bernini had her face slashed - a crime typically reserved for courtesans. At the trial, Constanza was indeed labeled a courtesan and banished to a monastery, while Bernini was simply fined and instructed to marry. With this series, Rogers imagines Bonarelli, cast as the patron saint of Patriarchy's unjust hypocrisies, up in the cosmos, illuminated by the brilliant colors of each little comet, or love letter, dispatched by the artist on behalf of History's unfairly exploited, blamed, and punished.