Tag: jonathan monaghan

Jonathan Monaghan at Bitforms Gallery

Luxury, power, and technology provocatively merge in Jonathan Monaghan’s mesmerizing digital images and new animation ‘Den of Wolves’ at Bitforms Gallery.  Traditional symbols of monarchal authority – an ermine robe, a scepter – show up in the aisles of an otherwise empty big box outlet or a pristine, unpopulated Apple store, conflating old and new symbols of cultural clout.  Still images titled ‘Sentry’ or ‘Soft Power’ picture the places and beings – composed of luxurious upholstery and architectural details – populating Monaghan’s eerie, too-perfect dystopia. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 12th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Jonathan Monaghan, Soft Power II, dye-sublimation on aluminum, painted maple frame, 27 x 22.5 inches, 2020.

Jonathan Monaghan at Bitforms

In Jonathan Monaghan’s latest fantastical animation, Disco Beast, a unicorn is captured and drained of energy by a predatory cell phone charging station only to be reborn in a luxury building’s hidden disco. Here, the unicorn is penned in by a ring of TSA scanners, an allusion to the Renaissance Unicorn Tapestries (which act as metaphor for marriage, among other things) and an update on the experience of being ‘captured.’ (On view at Bitforms on the Lower East Side through Dec 10th).

Jonathan Monaghan, The Unicorn in Captivity, 3D printed 18K gold plated brass, 3D printed porcelain, acrylic, 15 x 23 x 8 inches, 2017.

Jonathan Monaghan at Bitforms

Washington DC-based artist Jonathan Monaghan’s ‘Pavilion’ births giant contemporary Faberge eggs with surfaces composed of luxury goods and upholstery, demonstrating how money begets money. (At Bitforms on the LES through May 3rd).

Jonathan Monaghan, The Pavilion, animated HD film, 3 min, seamless loop, 2014.