Dean Monogenis, Leviathan, 2007
Acrylic on wood panel, 39 x 48 inches
Dean Monogenis
Above the Railing, Above the World
5 March - 18 April, 2010
Opening Reception Friday, March 5, 6-9
Collette Blanchard Gallery is pleased to present its first gallery exhibition with Dean Monogenis , entitled "Above the Railing, Above the World", on view from March 5th - April 18th.
Monogenis continues his presentation of inventive landscapes that explore the natural progressions of entropy. The subjects of his works depict architecture in different phases of construction including buildings, tents, antennas, electrical posts, windmills and scaffoldings. The focus however is not on the placement of each structure within the landscape but rather on the notion of each monument as a means to articulate transition and purpose. Monogenis re-positions real structures from his encounters in his ever-changing neighborhood in eastern Williamsburg to communities and places he visits around the world. The process of conceptually removing a building from its natural environment and rendering it in an imaginative space with lush landscape and dramatic skies challenges the visual, historical and resourceful components of traditional city planning.
Done in acrylic on wood panels with a high gloss finish, the paintings reveal a distinction between the bold flat areas used to create the architecture with the tightly rendered areas of rock formations and highly textured depictions of greenery. A building can serve two purposes--it can be built as a functioning space or it can be non-space simply existing as a structure with physical matter supporting its construction. Aside from his experience of living among the architecture that is represented in the work, Monogenis's interest in architectural forms is inherent from his many childhood experiences touring ancient ruins while visiting family in Greece. His works often includes depictions of older monuments shown in comparison with contemporary architecture.
Mr. Monogenis received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. Monogenis is included in the group exhibition Skeptical Landscape at the Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts in Amherst. His work has been exhibited in group shows at Robert Miller Gallery, Annina Nosei Gallery and Priska C. Juschka Fine Art and iis currently on view at Walter maciel Gallery. He was recently featured in New American Paintings. A series of ten images was reproduced in the September 2009 edition of the Georgia Review. A 66 page catalogue with a an essay by curator Elizabeth Grady will accompany the exhibition.
For more information, please contact the gallery at 646.249.7720 or gallery@colletteblanchard.com.