JOHN MONKS

John Monks' next show at Long & Ryle is October 29-November 22, 2008.

John Monks has exhibited in London and New York and is in many collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the V & A, London. Please click here for press release.

Since studying at the Royal College of Art 1977 - 1980, John Monks has doggedly continued with the same preoccupations. He is engaged with the vital struggles that defined the School of London painters, Auerbach, Kossoff and Freud; essentially the process of observation and record - transformation of paint into light and form.

Like a wrestler in the ring, there is an enthralling combination of aggression - threatening to over-run its channels - and deft skill. The surface carries the drama of creation: thick deposits from slashes of the palette knife, pooled glazes and thin washes that have run vertically and horizontally. These canvases have seen as much of the floor as of the easel.

In his disregard for the breeze of fashion, John Monks has confined himself to his studio and worked relentlessly. Consequently, Artificial Light amounts to a portrait of the studio; of the artist's resolve to stay there until the canvases have been dealt with. These are studies of questioned potency, frustration and release.

Please click here for press release.