VisArts Studio Fellowship: Jonathan Monaghan

Through a type of contemporary myth-making, my video installations, sculptures and prints elicit collective fears surrounding authority, commercialism and technology. Working complicity with the techniques and aesthetics of mass-media, my works are sleek and refined, but their narratives are disjointed and ambiguous. With imagery drawn from historical artworks, science fiction, corporate logos, and ancient mythology, the works are at times jarringly absurd. Installed as continuous loops, with no definite beginning or end, my videos allude to a disconcerting reality behind the seductive surfaces of technology and consumerism.

Artist Bio: Jonathan Monaghan (b. 1986, New York) works across a range of media, including prints, sculpture and animated video, to produce otherworldly objects and narratives. Drawing on wide-ranging sources, such as historical artworks and science fiction, his works seem to elicit subconscious anxieties associated with technology and consumerism. Past exhibitions and screenings of his work include The Sundance Film Festival, The Walters Museum of Art, and The Frist Center for the Visual Arts. His work has been featured in several media outlets including The Washington Post, VICE, The Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice. Monaghan is represented by bitforms gallery in New York and Galerie 22,48m2 in Paris.