source: guggenheimorg
Jonathan Monk was born in Leicester in 1969. Monk received a BFA from Leicester Polytechnic in 1988 and an MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 1991. In his work, Monk adopts the esthetics and practices of 1960s Conceptualism, but infuses the tradition with humor, levity, and autobiographical elements. In 1992 Monk sold paintings of low-budget travel advertisements for the price of the vacation package itself. In 1994 he mocked the artist’s gesture and persona by writing his name in urine on a beach in. And in 1995 and 1997 he took on the role of a driver awaiting various arriving passengers—Marcel Duchamp, Elizabeth Taylor, Jeff Koons, Kate Moss, Mom—in the Copenhagen airport terminal. While he was living in Los Angeles, Monk created None of the Buildings on Sunset Strip (1997–99) in reaction to Ed Ruscha’s famed photographic artist book. Monk produced two highly personal slide projections; In Search of Gregory Peck (1997) shows found photographs of the artist’s father as a tourist in Europe in the 1950s and The Gap Between My Mother and My Sister (1998) chronicles the trip between the homes of his mother and sister. Monk’s ongoing series Meetings (begun in 1999) proposes future dates and locations as hypothetical invitations to congregate, playing off of the text-based work of Lawrence Weiner and On Kawara. In 2002 Monk passed time as 50 nearly-identical photographs of the artist were developed in 50 different one-hour labs. For the ongoing project Day & Night (begun in 2002), Monk sends postcards to institutions rather than friends or family. For Keep Still (2002–04) the artist places white block letters atop the head of each figure in found group photographs spelling words or phrases like “today,” “a cube,” and “buzz. The slide show Big Ben (2003) projects postcards showing the London monument at the same time of day as the gallery. Monk mocked the display stipulations that often accompany contemporary art as well as the curatorial process in works like This painting should ideally be kept in storage (2004), This painting should ideally be hung near a Sol Lewitt (2004), and This painting should ideally be hung slightly too close to a Douglas Huebler (2005). Monk has created several works in neon; perhaps the best known are several from 2005 which display the hours that the hosting gallery is open to the public, a work that is turned on during opening hours and switched off at closing time. Also in 2005 Monk translated several of the neon innovations of his artistic predecessors into opaque painted aluminum in Corner Piece (for Bruce Nauman) and Corner Piece (for Dan Flavin). In 2009 Monk exhibited five stainless-steel sculptures that offer deflated versions of Jeff Koon’s signature balloon bunny.
Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized by Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow (1992 and 1994), Centre d’Art Contemporain in Neuchatel (1997), Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf (2003), Institute of Contemporary Art in London (2005), Kunstverein Hannover (2006), Palais de Tokyo + Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris (2008), and Artpace in San Antonio (2009). His work has also been included in group exhibitions such as Taipei Biennial (2000), Berlin Biennale (2001), Venice Biennale (2003), Whitney Biennial (2006), Prague Biennale (2007), and Panama Bienniale (2008). Monk lives and works in Berlin.
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source: lissongallery
Appropriation is something I have used or worked with in my art since starting art school in 1987. At this time (and still now) I realized that being original was almost impossible, so I tried using what was already available as source material for my own work. By doing this I think I also created something original and certainly something very different to what I was representing. I always think that art is about ideas, and surely the idea of an original and a copy of an original are two very different things. – Jonathan Monk, 2009
Lisson Gallery is proud to present new work by British artist Jonathan Monk. The exhibition The Deflated Inflated playfully addresses the status of contemporary sculpture, while taking on additional connotations related to the high and lows of the art market. Monk has become known for his original reflections on seminal works and concepts from conceptual and minimal art. His works embrace whimsical references, tailored alterations, irreverent imitations or updates, sometimes with a personal or autobiographical angle, of artists including Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha, Alighiero e Boetti and Bruce Nauman.
For The Deflated Inflated, Monk turns his attention to neo-pop artist Jeff Koons. In 1987 – incidentally the same year that Monk began art school in Glasgow – Charles Saatchi first introduced Koons’ work to a British audience, by including ‘Rabbit’ (1986) in the two-part exhibition New York Art Now. The sculpture, a larger than life cast in stainless steel of a toy bunny inflatable balloon, has become an icon of its era and its highly polished surface has fuelled imitations and tributes, such as Mark Leckey’s film ‘Made in ‘Eaven’ (2004).
Starting from a pink vinyl inflatable bunny, Koon’s original source, Monk has created a sequence of five stainless steel sculptures, which capture the inflatable in progressive states of deflation. With each stage, the ‘Deflated Sculpture’ (2009) droops slightly, leans against the wall of the exhibition space, folds over and collapses in a formless shape on its own plinth. As Koons raised everyday mundane objects to iconic status, Monk literally deflates this monumentality using a characteristic whimsical twist and a wink to Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures.
In addition to the sculptures, Monk has produced a series of photorealist paintings that record various stages in the fabrication process of the stainless steel works, from the production of a cast in clay to the welding and polishing of the metal structure. The decision to use the medium of painting rather than the original photographic documentation contributes to demystify the status of the original sculpture as self-contained surface. ‘The Two O’s from Jeff Koons Used as Eyes’ (2009), five works in bright colored neon, complement the project, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the status of the artist as brand.
The Deflated Inflated functions as a hall of mirrors, where Monk’s interest in reproduction and variation becomes manifest through his reference to contemporary art as a process that consumes its own history and returns it in altered new reflections. ‘The Death of Geometric Figures’ (circle, square, rectangle, triangle), (2009), four wall-based mirrors in the shape of geometric signs, surrounded by ceramic light bulbs. The work is only realized as the bulbs progressively burn out and stop illuminating the mirror and its surroundings. ‘Four dead corners reflected’ (2009), is a three corner mirror cube, reflecting the brightly colored plumes of a stuffed parrot, multiplying the bird kaleidoscopic image ad infinitum.
Jonathan Monk was born in 1969, Leicester, UK. He lives and works in Berlin.
The Deflated Inflated runs parallel to The Inflated Deflated at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York, May 7 – June 20, 2009. The artist is currently presenting The Rew-Shay Hood Project Part II at Artspace, San Antonio, Texas. Monk has exhibited extensively since the 1990s and his work is held in public and private collections internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include Time Between Spaces at Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, 2008; Tramway, Glasgow, 2008; Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow etc. at Kunstverein Hannover, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Kunsthalle Nurnberg, Leiterin Haus am Waldsee, Berlin from 2006-07; A continuous Project Altered Daily at ICA, London, 2006.