JOHN MONKS
Palette
This group of paintings has been completed in the last two years. I work between my house and studio in London, and my house and studio in France.
For me painting is a medium that allows me to create an image I try to inhabit. My paintings don’t have a direct narrative. They are really a visual journal of my life and an attempt to depict an emotional response to the world.
Although they are images that imply reality, they are in fact imaginary and not any one place or situation. They are more a stage in which I am a participant, rather than a viewer.
The pleasure and also the frustration of painting, is the pursuit of an image that sometimes shines out, and other times is lost in the shadows. It offers the journey but not the destination.
This quest is what I return to and which inspires the start of another work.
214 × 171 cm
Sound 2024 oil on canvas
Fable 2024 oil on canvas
122 × 92 cm
153 × 117 cm
Piano 2024 oil on canvas
Marker 2024 oil on canvas
122 × 92 cm
Mirror Image Revisited 2024 oil on canvas
168 × 224 cm
First Light 2024 oil on canvas
122 × 92 cm
155
Cascade 2024 oil on canvas
× 117 cm
76
Landscape 2024 oil on canvas
× 94 cm
Canopy 2024 oil on canvas
92 × 122 cm
Path 2024 oil on canvas
122 × 92 cm
Palace 2024 oil on canvas
70 × 90 cm
83 × 65 cm
Sound II 2024 oil on canvas
65
Canopy II 2024 oil on canvas
× 52 cm
46
Dark Mirror 2024 oil on canvas
× 56 cm
JOHN MONKS / CURRICULUM VITAE
Born 1954 Manchester.
Studied at Liverpool College of Art and the Royal College of Art (1980). Lives and works in London.
Selected Solo exhibitions
1981 Hull College of Art
1985 Paton Gallery, London
1989 Evidence, Cleveland & Bluecoat Galleries
1990 Paton Gallery, London
1991 New Work, Lanchester Gallery, Coventry
1992 Paton Gallery, London
1993 Manchester City Art Galleries
1994 Paton Gallery, London
1995 Beaux Arts, London
1996 Beaux Arts, London
1998 Beaux Arts, London
1999 Peter Findlay Gallery, New York
2002 Long & Ryle, London
2003 Peter Findlay Gallery, New York
2004 Long & Ryle, London
2005 Twenty Four Hours, Long & Ryle, London
2006 Crossings, Peter Findlay Gallery, New York.
2006 Spanning the River, The Guildhall, London
2007 Artificial Light, Long & Ryle, London
2008 Two Decades, Long & Ryle, London
2008 Domain, Long & Ryle, London
2009 Recent Works, Clare Hall College, Cambridge, UK
2009 Group Show, Peter Findlay Gallery, New York
2010 Recent Works, Long & Ryle, London
2013 Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, UK (Guest Lecturer Barber Institute)
2013 Day In Day Out, Long and Ryle, London
2013 10 Gresham Street, Long and Ryle in collaboration with VJB Arts, London
2017 Mirror Image, Long and Ryle, London
2018 60 Threadneedle Street, Long and Ryle in collaboration with VJB Arts, London
2019 The Studio, Long and Ryle, London
2022 Language, Long and Ryle Gallery. With an essay introduction by Ronnie Wood, musician
2023 Galerie Adrienne Desbiolles, Zurich, Switzerland
2024 JEWELS, Wildt’sches Haus, Petersplatz, Basel, Switzerland
Overseas Visits
1987 British Council sponsored artist, Strumica University, Yugoslavia
1990 Invited Artist in Residence, British Institute, Madrid, Spain
1990 Guest Lecturer at the Queen’s Museum, New York
1992 Guest lecture tour of USA:
- Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven‚ Connecticut
- Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee
- Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati
- Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
1995 Guest lecturer, Tate Britain, London
2001 Guest Lecturer at The School, The Art Institute of Chicago
Public Collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Arts Council of Great Britain
Manchester City Art Gallery, UK Contemporary Arts Society, London British Institute, Madrid
Santa Barbara Museum, California Cleveland Gallery, Middlesborough, UK Bangor University, Bangor, North Wales
Additional Information
2018 Invited by the British Council to discuss the GallenKallela exhibition at the National Gallery, London
2018 Chosen by the Department of Education, UK as an artist for study for GCSE art
A monograph on the artist with an introduction by Jasper Sharp was published in 2008 by the Penchant Press
2023 Sotheby’s Desidera Auction, Palais Oppenheim, Cologne, Germany
© Paintings by John Monks
Photography of works by A C Cooper Photography
The artist in his studio, photo by Dr Joseph Monks
Designed by Graham Rees