Alyssa Monks

FIXATION

OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 27, 2010

at David Klein Gallery
Birmingham, Michigan

DFN Gallery is pleased to announce Fixation, an exhibition of new paintings by Alyssa Monks at David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan.

Alyssa Monks is known for her large scale, technically accomplished paintings whose recent subject matter is often a woman emerging from water or viewed from behind a steamy glass door. Monks pushes the boundaries of realism to the point of abstraction, finding a symbiotic relationship between the two. Her masterful technique adds to the drama of human experience so evident in the emotional intensity of her work. The suggestion of emerging or submerging is compelling and mysterious. As artist Vincent Desiderio notes in his essay for the Fixation catalogue:

“Although seamless in their illusion, Monks’s paintings give us pause to consider the symbolic implications of her motif. A powerful metaphoric element draws the subject into close proximity with a celebration of process. These characters, whether victims or Sirens, whether trapped within their aqueous prison or luring us into drowsy oblivion allegorize the very nature of painting and its seductive enticements.”

Monks's paintings have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions at DFN Gallery and elsewhere, including Intimacy! at the Kunstmuseum in Ahlen, Germany and Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820–2009 at the National Academy Museum in New York. A graduate of Boston College, Monks studied painting at Lorenzo de Medici in Florence and received an M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative Art. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ENTIRE EXHIBITION

For more information please call 212-334-3400
or visit us at www.dfngallery.com

Alyssa Monks, Fixation (sold)
2010, oil on linen, 48 x 72 in.

Alyssa Monks, Charade (sold)
2010, Oil on linen, 48 x 32 in.