BIO
ELIZA BONO
As a child, I was surrounded by art. I come from a family where my grandfather was a talented figurative sculptor who created in wood, metal, and stone. My father, however, was an artistic carpenter, creating very sophisticated pieces of furniture and wooden toys. Unfortunately, both of them died when I was still a child, so I had no opportunities to learn from them. I grew up in communist Poland and my biggest passions were drawing and horses.
A desire to create has always been present in my life, getting expressed through different artistic activities at specific stages in my life. As a young woman, I drew and painted realistic horses.
In 2004, I took up nature and people photography as a hobby. I have been invited to take part in photo exhibitions in Poland a few times. To develop my skills and artistic sensitivity, in 2007 I graduated from Warszawska Szkoła Fotografii [Warsaw School of Photography] and then worked for a few years as a freelancer.

At the age of 38, I moved to Sweden. As an adult, I dreamt of following in my grandfather’s steps and becoming a sculptress, but my daily grind, single motherhood and fight for survival in a foreign country pushed my dreams into the background.
There was a breakthrough in 2019. Me and my 13-year-old child went for 2 months to Spanish mountains, because I felt I needed some time to think over what I wanted to do in my life. A house where we lived in Spain was in the middle of nowhere, without running water or electricity. Because of a lack of other options, we spent our evenings in the candlelight during which we were drawing and talking. There I opened myself again to painting and I set my first surrealistic and mystic characters free.
Surrealistic painting gave me a strong feeling of satisfaction, but I was still missing the opportunity to express my art in 3-dimensional space, which can be achieved by sculptures.
In 2023 I decided to take part in my first sculpting course with the use of paper mâché. During this course, I immediately understood that sculpting is the way of expression I’ve been waiting for all my life. The same year I was accepted for Kävesta Folkhögskola – an artistic school in Sweden, where I was able to create my works with the use of clay. In the meantime, I finished more courses on creating portraits in clay as well as creating full figures in clay on a wax basis. Ultimately, my dream was to cast brass and bronze sculptures.
I create my works in clay, paper mâché, oil-based modeling clay as well as in mixed technique that combines different materials. My paintings are done with oil and acrylic paints on canvas or on wood.
Currently, My artwork is characterized by curiosity and a desire to experiment, which manifests itself through unexpected combinations of traditional media (such as clay or papier-mâché) with recycled materials such as metal, fabrics, wood, stones. By combining different media, I want to achieve an interesting effect of reality in my surrealist works.
My sculptures and paintings are figurative, realistic representations of surrealism. I often create creatures that combine human and animal elements. Or I sink into a world of strange sea creatures from my dreams. My big inspiration is nature in combination with mythology, old fairy tales and pure fantasy.