them, now, and thereafter
September 4 - October 2, 2020
St. Louis, MO — Monaco is pleased to present them, now and thereafter, opening Friday, September 4. The exhibition, curated by Monaco member Jennifer Colten, will feature work by Colten, Sara Ghazi Asadollahi, Dail Chambers and Wyndi DeSouza The exhibition runs through Friday, October 2. Gallery hours are 12 - 4pm every Saturday.
THEM, NOW AND THEREAFTER
them, now and thereafter brings together four artists whose work focuses on multiple processes of building and unbuilding, and considers how a relationship to physical and transitory spaces might provide essential points of connection. The land, the body and found objects become essential repositories that form the foundations for communication. Embedded in the works is an acknowledgement that longing and absence are intertwined. Each of these artists considers how spatial distancing and physical connection might be reconciled. Together, their work imagines the possibilities and inherent failures of this attempt.
Jennifer Colten is a photographer whose work explores the representation of landscape, cultural geographies, and environmental implications of land use. Addressing issues of erasure and visibility is central to her practice. Collaboration is essential to Colten’s work where an interdisciplinary approach is part of a larger process of engaging with community, local histories and public space.
After receiving her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Colten relocated to the Midwest and currently teaches photography at Washington University Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
Sara Ghazi Asadollahi is an Iranian visual artist. She holds her BA and MA in painting in Iran and an MFA degree from Washington University in Saint Louis, and she is a PhD student at GSU in Film & Media studies in Atlanta, Georgia.
As an artist, Sara Ghazi A. has always been fascinated by the dialectic between reality and imagination, where the lines between these two are blurred. Her work inspired by abandoned places and ruins, as they form the subject of imagination and contemplation. Her work also always accompany by interdisciplinary researches on literature, philosophy, architecture and cinema.
Works available courtesy of the artist and Bruno David Gallery.
Dail Chambers. The artist, as a civil conduit, works as a guide for society. Chambers’ public practice embodies this role by providing motivational support, organizing work and sustainable living assistance to historically impoverished urban spaces in the Upper South and Mid South of America.
The art studio practice responds to genealogy, womanist history, and folklore in an ekphrastic attempt to continue the lineage of spirituality and mythology in art. There are iterations of genealogical quests in the American Black Migration that also address ecological and social justice issues.
Wyndi DeSouza is a New Jersey born artist that utilizes mail art and multiple mediums to present what she calls abstract data. Every project she works on builds upon a non-traditional archive that presents a story from those who willingly share. Her archives present images and data maps that visualize location, emotion and relationships between others. It counters representation by seeking to visualize the intangible and unquantifiable while challenging traditional means of documentation. Though born in New Jersey, Wyndi’s studio practice is based in St. Louis, Missouri. She credits the distance from home and family as the main influencer of her work.