Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Alyssa Monks’ Compelling Oil Paintings Blend Portraiture and Landscape

There is a magical simplicity about Brookyn based painter Alyssa Monk's oil portraits, where looking at her work is like looking into the reflection of a forest pool. Her images portray ghostly figures that take form at the surface, inbetween the reflection of other natural elements like tree branches and the sun shining peeking through their foliage. Her lush depictions are often described as a blend of the figurative and landscape.

There is a magical simplicity about Brookyn based painter Alyssa Monk’s oil portraits, where looking at her work is like looking into the reflection of a forest pool. Her images portray ghostly figures that take form at the surface, inbetween the reflection of other natural elements like tree branches and the sun shining peeking through their foliage. Her lush depictions are often described as a blend of the figurative and landscape.

“My intention is to transfer the intimacy and vulnerability of my human experience into a painted surface. I like mine to be as intimate as possible, each brush stroke like a fossil, recording every gesture and decision,” she says. Monk’s work first caught our attention in 2011, when her work began to involve obscuring of the human face and body using water, oil and other elements as filters. Monk explains that she had always been drawn to water since she was a child, known to venture into the pool unsupervised on more than a few occasions.

After years of pain­ting figu­res behind steam cove­red glass and water, she ventured out­side to paint some­thing different: Her new paintings combine elements of portraiture and nature which she explains as single-figure examinations of human emotions: “We all have our vul­ne­ra­bi­lity,” she explains,”these pain­ting do show a cer­tain kind of pro­tec­ting that vul­ne­ra­bi­lity. The new work, I think, is more trans­pa­rent about that vul­ne­ra­bi­lity. There is more of an unin­hi­bi­ted expres­sion of lon­ging, fear, hear­ta­che, love, grief, hope, calm, under­stan­ding, resolution.” She will debut in a series of thirteen new paintings at Forum Gallery in New York on March 24th.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
A child of a bustling city of contrast and colors, Rodrigo Branco's affinity for abstraction may come as no surprise. But his blurred portraits of local people in São Paulo, created using patches of colors and expressive strokes, are actual representations of what the artist used to see as a little kid. Raised in the southern outskirts of the city, Branco had a severe vision impairment that was left untreated for years.
Carlo Cane's misty landscapes appear as if in a beautiful dream, but through the thick fog exists something sinister and unappealing. The Italian artist, featured here on our blog, is distraught about how we are treating our environment and the implications of our growing disconnection to nature. But rather than focus on images of loss, he expresses his concern by presenting us with bewildering and surreal portrayals of nature in its most vigorous and alluring state. Cane recently shared his new paintings in an email to Hi-Fructose, in which he explores the possibilities of our future, while taking a note from our past.
In painting nature, artist David Kroll evokes a classical sense of beauty and fragility. He combines elements of naturalist painting and still life in his portrayal of animals like elegant egrets and koi which perch and swim around delicate objects. Though remarkably detailed and inspired by early landscape painting, Kroll has said that he wants to paint a version of the wild that is romantic, and not necessarily realistic. "I paint refuges, places to go to for solace. I want my paintings to be destinations of quiet and calm," he says. "However, this world is fragile."
Chicago based Jennifer Presant merges familiar, everyday places into mysterious landscapes. Her subjects vary from displaced household items and exposed figures in non-sensical, dramatically lit spaces. Looking at her work, we find ourselves staring into overwhemingly quiet scenes, such as an empty bedroom in the wilderness or middle of the ocean. Presant calls this mixture of environments a "visual metaphor" which symbolizes our ongoing experiences of time, memory, and relationship with physical space.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List