French-born, Berlin-based artist Jaybo Monk creates collage like-paintings that relish ambiguity, living in the space between different styles and subject matters. The artist says that he deliberately avoids symmetry and a sense of gestalt wholeness — his work opposes what he refers to as “the ugliness of perfection.” Instead, his paintings compartmentalize and rearrange the various parts of the human body in sensual, abstract depictions that evoke emotions associated with touch.
Warm, hazy colors seem to float in the background like the tingly feelings we get when in the presence of someone we love. Body parts glisten, shaded dramatically as if lit by a setting sun. In addition to his paintings, Monk’s portfolio is filled with found-object sculptures that he uses as installation elements to give his work a social context and, oftentimes, a biting commentary.
In a new exhibition at 