Artist: Jonathan Monk
Title: The Things We Could Do Before We Were Here To Do Them
Medium: wall mounted book in clear acrylic case
Dimensions: 22.5 x 18.5 x 3.2 cm
Date: 2009 Jonathan Monk was born in Leicester in 1969. He graduated from Glasgow School of Art'sEnvironmental Department in 1991. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Jonathan Monk's work includes a wide range of media including installations, photography, film, sculpture and performance. His tongue-in-cheek methods often recall procedural approaches typical of 1960's Conceptualism, but without sharing their utopian ideals and notions of artistic genius. Instead, Monk grounds his conceptual approach in more commonplace concerns, that of personal history, his family, even pets, whilst still alluding to the types of systems and processes that artists such as Sol LeWitt employed so rigorously. While much of his work is gently playful and tinged with nostalgia for the late 1960's, it also challenges the idea of purity in modern art, demystifying the creative process and suggesting alternative models for how art and the role of the artist can be interpreted.
Recent exhibitions include solo shows at The ICA, Lisson Gallery, London and the Palais de Tokyo Paris, and the Musee d'Art Moderne de La Ville de Paris.
