Monica Kim Garza

Monica Kim Garza (b. 1988, Alamogordo, New Mexico) lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from California College of the Arts and has exhibited widely across the United States and Europe.

Garza’s work explores the human form as a motif, creating a dialogue between art history and the contemporary world, the intimate and the universal. The female figure serves as her muse, reflecting both personal experience and timeless archetypes. She engages with the materiality of paint, its accidents, textures, and tactile freedom, exploring how gestures, archetypes, and everyday objects carry historical resonance alongside contemporary meaning.

Her paintings depict women in vivid everyday moments, playful, autonomous, and fully inhabiting their space, often evoking traces of the artist herself. Through fast, gestural brushstrokes, figure and environment merge into intimate, dynamic compositions that are at once lively, sensual, and contemplative. Garza speaks the language of paint, reminding us that even in our most modern lives, we remain connected to our essential human form.

Born 1988 in Alamogordo, New Mexico, US
Lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, US


EDUCATION

California College of Arts, Painting/Drawing 2010 BFA, California, US


SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2025

Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, Ruttkowski; 68,
Paris, France

Armory Show, Solo booth, Focus Section, The Hole, New York, NY, USA

2023

Nada Solo Booth, TD Bank Curated Spotlight, Soco
Gallery Charlotte, USA

The Trees and bushes beside you, Ruttkowski; 68,
Cologne, Germany

Raisin, Eighteen,
Copenhagen, Denmark

2022

Under the Crescent Moon, Galerie Julien
Cadet, Paris, France

Sliver of Salt, Soco Gallery,
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

2021

Baguettes, The Hole, New York,
USA

Summer, I Miss You, Ruttkowski; 68,
Cologne, Germany

2020

Closer, V1
Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Cocul, with
Vincent Beaurin, cadet capela, Paris, France

Orange and Cinnamon, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2019

Show
show, with Vincent Beaurin, cadet capela, Paris,
France

Laredo, V1
Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

2017

Chain Hang Low, Groupe/ANON, New
York, USA

Rock the Boat, Lily Robert, Paris,
France

Jangalang, New Image Art, Los
Angeles, California, USA

2015

Super Soakher, New Image Art, Los
Angeles, California, United States

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026

Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York,
USA

Unapologetic, P Two One Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2025

Bitten by the Bug ( ”smittet af bacillen”), Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning,

Denmark

We Belong Here: The Gutierrez Collection, The North Carolina Museum of Art,

Winston-Salem, USA

Layer Cake, SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, US

Tear Drop or Tidal Wave, PierMarq*, Sydney,
Australia

2024

Traces and Threads, KÖNIG
Gallery, Seoul, Korea

She’s a Knockout, Lowe Art
Museum, Miami, USA

The Summer Games, KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, Louisville,
USA

2023

Mama, I’m Coming Home, The Intuitive
Machine, Santiago, Chile

Human, Choi and Choi, Seoul,
Korea

Kiaf Seoul, The Hole,
Seoul

Eros, P21, Seoul, Korea

Taipei Dangdai Art Fair, The Hole, Taipei, Taiwan

Art Brussels, The Hole, Brussels, Belgium

2022

Framing Identity, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake
City, UT, USA

Interior Dialogues, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Taipei Dangdai group show, Jordan Kerwick, Monica Kim Garza
& Ken Sortais, Taipei, Taiwan

Miam-Miam, Volery Gallery & Galerie Julien Cadet,
Dubai Art Fair, Dubai, UAE

2021

Mixed Pickles,
Ruttkowski;68, Cologne, Germany

Paper Cut Bodega III, V1 Gallery,
Copenhagen, Denmark

Art Brussels,
Ruttkowski;68, Cologne, Germany

Play, The Hole, NYC at Dallas
Art Fair Projects

A Very Anxious Feeling: Voices of Unrest in the American Experience; 20 Years of the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum,
Virginia, US

2020

Hybrids, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden

Personal Mythologies, cadet capela,
Paris, France

Today’s Special #1, curated by
Jesper Elg, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Art Herning, with V1
Gallery, Herning, Denmark

Woman, Allouche Benias Gallery,
Athens, Greece

Mine IV, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

2019

MINE III, V1
Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 

The
Beyond: Georgia O'Kieffe and Beyond, New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, USA

PUNCH
LA, curated by Nina Chanel
Abney, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

Mixed Pickles,
Ruttwoski 68, Cologne, Germany

Summer Fling,
Kravets Wheby Gallery, New York City, USA

Pak den Badeaunzug ein, Kornfeld Galerie, Berlin, Germany

The Thousand and One Nights, Artual Gallery,
Beruit, Lebanon

The Beyond: Georgia O'Kieffe and Beyond, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

2018

MINE II, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen,
Denmark

Untitled Fair, New Image Art,
Miami, Florida, USA

Realisme D'Aujourd' Hui, Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France

Above the Rim, Contemporary Art
Museum of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

The Beyond: Georgia O'Keeffe and Beyond, Crystal Bridges
Museum, Bentonville Arkansas, USA

Drawing Room, Over The Influence,
Hong Kong, China

Extra, The Hole, New York,
USA

Tables, Pots & Plants, VOLTA14, V1 Gallery,
Basel, Switzerland

Art Herning, V1 Gallery,
Herning, Denmark 

2017

MINE, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Nude, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen,
Denmark

NSFW, Museum of Sex in
collaboration with VICE, New York, USA

He Fell Through So We Came Looking for You, Gallery Steinsland
Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden

2016

Character, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen,
Denmark

Heatwave, Stephanie Chefas
Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA

Lifeforce, Untitled Space, New
York, USA

The Parlor, V1 Gallery, Art
Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Swimmin in the Playground, Fifty 24 SF
Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA

Art Market San Francisco: Contemporary Art Fair, New Image Art, San
Francisco, California, USA

Selfie, Stephanie Chefas
Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA

Cyan Projects, Affenfaust Galerie,
Hamburg, Germany

2015

Project Pear, Stephanie Chefas
Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA

Swim, New Image Gallery,
Los Angeles, California, USA 

2014

Girl Parts, Mudfire Gallery,
Atlanta, Gorgia, USA 

COLLECTIONS

 OZ Art, US

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis
Museum, London, GB

Carlsberg Museum,
København, DK

Xiao Museum of Contemporary
Art, Rizhao, Shandong, CN

Beth Rudin DeWoody
Collection, New York, NY, US

The Maria Brito Art
Collection, New York, NY, US

SELECTED PRESS

2025

“Monica Kim Garza — Galerie
ruttkowski;68”, Guillaume Benoit, Slash, Paris

”Nečetla jsem tvou textovku?
Promiň, právě maluju. Monica Kim Garza a její tvorba, která oslavuje život”,
Interview by Martina Fridrichová, Sport in. art

“I haven't read your text yet?
Sorry, I'm painting right now. Monica Kim Garza: Art as a Celebration of Life”,
Interview by Martina Fridrichová, Sport in. art 

2022

”Monica Kim Garza: Everything
you do with your body affects your mind”, Interview by Martina Fridrichová,
Sport in. art  

 2021

“Monica Kim Garza’s Journey from
Selling Chicken Wings to Showing Her Paintings around the World”, Lisa Wong
Macabasco, Artsy

 2020

“Artist Monica Kim Garza
explores isolation and a yearning for togetherness”, Interview by Emily Dinsdale,
Dazed Digital

“Nine artists who capture the transformative power of
female pleasure”, Emily Dinsdale, Dazed Digital

“Monica Kim Garza: Closer 15 aug - 12 sep 2020”, V1
Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

2019

”Når sex er sjovt: To
unge amerikanske kunstnere trækker på kunsthistorien, men lægger en absolut
samtidig vinkel på kvinder, mænd og seksualitet”, Trine
Ross, Politiken

2018

Emergent Magazine, Issue 3, London, United
Kingdom

“Vetting a Vibe”, Juxtapoz Magazine,
Issue 206

2017

Office Magazine, Issue 7, New York, United
States

Material Girl, Issue 34, Berlin, Germany

"Monica Garza's Female Form", I-D, The
Fifth Sense

2016

Paulette Magazine, Issue 30, Paris, France

ASOS Magazine, United Kingdom/Europe

Riposte Magazine, Issue 7, London, United
Kingdom

“An Interview with Monica Garza”, Interview, Polyester
Magazine

“Imitating Life”, Interview, Minced
Milk

“Real Women Shit”, Interview, Amadeus
Magazine, Issue 07, Los Angeles, California, USA

Be- Street Magazine, Issue 30, Paris, France

2015

“MUSE: Artist Monica Garza”, Interview, Labeling
Men

“Monica Kim x 5BORO NYC "Caliente" Collection”, Hypebeast, T.S. Fox

“You Need Monica Kim Garza’s Nude Paintings In Your Life”, The Fader, Rawiya
Kameir

“Interview Series: Monica Garza”, Interview, Live
Fast Magazine, Abby Wilcox

Sumzine Magazine, Issue 3

COLLABORATIONS

5Boro NYCX Monica Kim Garza "NYC
Series" 2018

Lily Roberts X Monica Kim Garza sweater
collection 2017

Angelica Rahe X Monica Kim Garza Palante
Collection of Pins 2016

5Boro NYC X Monica Kim Garza Summer Collection,
“Caliente” 2015

RAD Co. X Monica Kim Garza Collection 2015

KARA x Monica Kim Garza Cooperate Calendar Kara
2015 (Karastore.com)