opening: thursday, september 19 from 18:00
exhibition: Friday, September 20 to Saturday, December 14, 2024
"I was happy when Nicolas invited me to make the 10th anniversary show at Espace Muraille in Geneva - It felt like an interesting opportunity to prepare an exhibition within a private collection. The remit for the presentation was completely up to me - I could determine the rules.
After a site visit and lengthy discussions with Nicolas & Caroline I proposed we make the show together... I would make a short list of my work and Caroline & Eric would do the same with works from their collection. But I needed something to help control the process... an editor of sorts. The editor turned out to be the space - the rooms of Espace Muraille have no windows or at least none that are overly visible... this odd logic helped me curate a short list of works - Caroline & Eric did the same.
I made a new series of paintings based on the windows ot my studio - the view from within. The rest seemed to fall into place without to much of a problem
- it's mostly windows with one odd shaped door. It's funny what you can find without even looking"
Jonathan Monk's activity as an artist has been perhaps the most vexing for traditionalists who seek an autograph signature on the part of an artist. Seemingly endless are Monk's citations of his predecessors, in works dedicated to Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt, Douglas Huebler, On Kawara, Alighiero Boetti, and others. Yet his own aesthetic and imprint emerges, imprinted in the contemporary, relentlessly investigating the now in subjects ranging from the cellphone to the nature of facsimiles and intellectual copyright. Monk's projects include media -and time- based works, an analysis of museum structures, queries into the nature of the artistic process itself, and an exploration of the role of art history and artistic forbears. His materials include neon, paper, bronze, pencil, or aluminum (among others), with a freshness uniquely his own. With keen insight into the nature of form, even at its most ephemeral, Monk's practice is one of the most vigorously intellectual today.
© Three Star Books
