Matthew Monahan’s work presents a futuristic archaeology. Drawing from a wide range of influences, from Modernist art to ancient totems, Monahan’s ‘artefacts’ are both familiar and strange. Filtering historical mythologies through his own personal system of reference, altered further through the experience of making, Monahan’s work alludes to a contemporary spirituality, where beauty and brutality coalesce as virtual monuments. Nondescript and clunky, the work's plausible function is secondary to their materiality: wax, paper, and plaster take on barbaric forms, their temporal media humorously suggesting timelessness. Their precious value is guarded by an over-sized sculptural ‘shard’. Through his assemblages, Monahan offers a dark mysticism, where material trickery and abstracted form resurrect forgotten primal instincts (The Saatchi Gallery). Matthew Monahan received a BFA from Cooper Union School of Art. He studied at Gerrit Rietveld Academy, and De Ateliers, Amsterdam, and in Japan at the Kitakyushu Center for Contemporary Art. His work was the subject of a solo show at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. He has been included in Sonsbeek Sculpture Exhibition, Arnhem; Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; Unmonumental, New Museum, New York; Eden's Edge: Fifteen LA Artists, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the 2006 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York. Monahan currently works and lives in Los Angeles, California.
To see more of Monahan's work, visit http://www.mmmonahan.com/
Event Date and Time: Tuesday November 9th, 6:30pm
University of Pennsylvania: Penn Design
B1 Meyerson Hall
210 S. 34th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
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