Keegan Monaghan’s richly textured paintings depict alternately close-up or expansive views of ordinary places and things, rendered extraordinary through tightly cropped compositions and perspectival innovations that situate the viewer in incredible proximity to his uncanny scenes. Monaghan’s subjects teeter on the edge of the unfamiliar, approaching the surreal, while remaining close at hand. Carefully balancing light and shadow with saturated color, the artist lays his paint on thick, building layers of rich impasto texture. Monaghan’s ceramic sculptures and works on paper share an emphasis on tactility and a thorough examination of a single subject, prompting us to consider different ways of perceiving the world around us.
Keegan Monaghan (b. 1986 in Evanston, IL) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Enter the Nose, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Indicator, James Fuentes, New York (2022); Bowl of Food, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); Threads, James Fuentes, New York (2020); and Incoming (2018), James Fuentes, New York. In 2019, the artist’s work was included in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of America Art. Additional group exhibitions include Ceramics Club: CC22, White Columns, New York, NY (2022); Power Tools, Candice Madey, New York, NY (2022); Clay Pop, curated by Alia Williams, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY (2021 ); Eighteen Hundred Showers, Simone Subal Gallery, New York (2017); and I Pledge Allegiance, On Stellar Rays, New York (2016). His work is included in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
