DEAN MONOGENIS, Habitat and the Void

CCA Andratx is pleased to present the new exhibition by the Brookly artist Dean Monogenis. As a result of his stay at the CCA Artist-in-Rresidence Program the exhibition unfolds his latest series of works.

Monogenis’ work has been moving toward image-based abstraction. The impetus for this change stems from his continued interest in creating an obstruction or hindrance to the image behind- a kind of latticework through which we see a landscape. This transition begins with a shift in scale and composition to the more design-based elements in the paintings.

By making these changes, he explores an argument for and against, traditional landscape painting. On the one hand painting can be a window unto a plausible world. Wherein depicted objects are in proportion to perspectival space and the underlying logic of nature. At the same time, real world circumstance contradicts or challenges this type of pictorial framing.

The exhibition Habitat and the Void displays a group of works with divergent strategies for representing architecture and landscape. In some cases the focus of the work is the architecture itself, while in others it is more to do with the relationship of a building to its environment or setting. Still, a third approach, with no building or habitat to focus on, is meant to signify absence. In the latter case it is thought as a void or a visual cue that directs our focus to the unknown. All three approaches aim to address the implied psychology of living in a world of constant change. How this change feels is determined in part by how we see ourselves in relationship to our surroundings.