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Gowen Contemporary

Gallery:
Grand-Rue 23
CH 1204 Genève

Registered office:
Place du Grand-Mézel 2-4
CH 1204 Geneva

E. info@gowencontemporary.com
T. +41(0)22 700 30 68

BRENDAN MONROE: Microcosm

Press Release

18 January – 1 March 2008
“ While working on a previous show, a friend sent me a link with a lecture about
astronomy and the universe by a well-known scientist. One thing this
guy mentioned was that by weight, as many atom particles as it takes to make a human is as many humans as it would take to make up the sun - atoms being the smallest thing in our known universe, stars being the largest, and then us in the proportional centre. As my more recent work is focusing on some kind
of fictional body place I wanted to make a few more pieces that are reminders that the entire universe is based on so many molecules found on our own tiniest levels.”

ARQUEBUSE is proud to present Brendan Monroe’s first solo exhibition in Europe, and one which develops his affinity for the imagery of microbiology. Monroe (b. 1980) is increasingly known for his quirky drawings and paintings that explore an interior world of micro-organisms getting on with their daily lives and loves, and based on a personal fascination with science and nature.

Monroe’s work deals with concepts of micro versus macro, our place within the universe, our relationship to the bodily and abject, and concepts of interior and exterior space. But alongside these serious preoccupations, there is also a playful and inventive use in the handling of materials and colour. Collected scrapings of paint get collaged into sculptural relief effect, sometimes representing a collective social detritus or “compost”. Wood is significant as an organic material; wood burls get carved and polished into sculptures that transcend their overtones of 1970s tiki kitsch.

With this new body of work Monroe has also developed his juxtaposition of abstraction and figuration with imagery suggestive of blood cells and bodily fluids allow a move into what is at first glance a pure abstraction. But while for example the broad use of the colour red is significant, Monroe’s red abstractions are about the very literal idea of “red cell-like shapes living, merging and mutating. They could be in the process of multiplying to form something larger or they could be wrapping themselves around a core meaning to keep it protected. … and there is the idea of bringing life into the colour red with basic but sort of sensuous forms.”