BE THEREHigh Rise Vista: New PaintingsPresented by Stux Gallery September 6, 2007- October 13, 2007Reception: September 6, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmDean Monogenis
Inspired, in part, by the onslaught of architectural redevelopment in local urban neighborhoods such as Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Manhattan's Lower East Side, Monogenis' paintings highlight the temporality of such development by presenting an amalgam of disparate architectural elements, such as blighted housing projects and inhospitable condominiums. This juxtaposition serves to connect the old with the new, creating a timeless architectural vista, free from the constraints of urban planning and the fluctuations of market value. The paintings on view employ the visual language of construction and restoration, scaffolding, safety netting and bold coloring (garish oranges and institutional blues) as reminders of the cyclical nature of architectural usage. Exactingly rendered brushstrokes draw attention to detailed elements that only hint to the presence of human inhabitants. In these paintings, humans take a secondary role to the structures that they inhabit. Accordingly, it is these structures that act to define the way that people live, the places that they travel, and the patterns of activity that they follow in daily life. In the North Gallery, facing the windows on 25th Street, Monogenis will present a sculptural installation intended to question the definitive structure of the Gallery itself. Through the use of a specific painting schema, and a sculpturally constructed geodesic dome, the artist considers the permanence and impermanence of the Gallery space. Dean Monogenis has studied at Skidmore College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently resides and works in Brooklyn, New York. Monogenis recently exhibited at the Walter Macial Gallery in Los Angeles. In New York, he has exhibited at the Riva Gallery, Annina Nosei Gallery, Elga Wimmer Gallery, Jack Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY, and Antonio Battaglia Arte Contemporanea in Milan, Italy.
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