Artist’s Statement

The incongruous or difficult nature of contemporary urban environments is visible in the expansionism that has spread throughout the world. The unbridled need for growth has imposed itself on all existing structures, natural and man made. Human effort seeks to both destroy and restore our vernacular landscape, and in doing so creates a dense tapestry of chaotic architectural patterning. These temporary byproduct, such as net covered buildings delineated with scaffolding and Day-Glo Orange gauze, remind us of the temporal nature of architecture and it's ability to simultaneously create self-defining monuments.

My work investigates the world of constant transformation by reconstituting the architectural elements from this interim period. I do this by depicting buildings or ruins in imagined landscapes that both mimic existing spaces and also negate them. Using architecture as a platform, in terms of its physicality and its cultural symbolism, I'm working toward the fertile ground of reorganization and reinterpretation. Fragments that I photograph, draw, or simply pull from my subconscious get pieced together to create new, mimetic scenes that satisfy both my love for the modern world and my fear in having no control of where it is going.

Artist’s Links

website:  www.deanmonogenis.com    

gallery links: www.waltermacielgallery.com