Monica Kim Garza
Monica Kim Garza portrays audacious women, living life to the fullest. They lounge, eat, drink, smoke, sunbathe, have sex and play sports, enjoying mundane activities as they calmly and unabashedly gaze at us. Everyday moments, memories, and "vibes" as Kim Garza puts it, come together in joyful, Epicurean scenes, where the pressures of modern life seem to evaporate. Painted with fast-paced, gestural brushstrokes, the female figures and their surrounding environments blend together, heedless of antiquated compositional edicts. The women share distinct bodily and ethnical features because they all embody the protagonist; Monica Kim Garza. Comparisons to Paul Gauguin's Tahitian works as well as Frida Kahlo's lush self-examinations are frequent, and while the artist formally addresses legacies of Western oil painting, her carefree body-doubles seem cheekily ignorant of the heavy weight of such historically mediated visualities. The trajectory of escapism is, after all, freedom.
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 EXIHBITIONS
2023
Raisin, Eighteen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022
Under the Crescent Moon, Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France
Sliver of Salt, Soco Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
2021
Baguettes, The Hole, New York, US
2020
Closer, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Orange and Cinnamon, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, US
2019
Laredo, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017
Chain Hang Low, Groupe/ANON, New York, US
Rock the Boat, Lily Robert, Paris, France
Jangalang, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
2015
Super Soakher, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2022
V1 XX - Twenty years of V1 Gallery, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
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
Lampadephoria, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020
Cucul, with Vincent Beaurin, Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France
Today’s Special #1, V1 Gallery, curated by Jesper Elg, 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 in New Britain, Connecticut, US
PUNCH LA, curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, US
Mixed Pickles, Ruttwoski 68, Cologne, Germany
Summer Fling, Kravets Wheby Gallery, New York City, US
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, US
2018
MINE II, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Untitled Fair, New Image Art, Miami, Florida, US
Realisme D’Aujourd’ Hui, Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France
Above the Rim, Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, North Carolina, US
The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Beyond, Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville Arkansas, US
Drawing Room, Over The Influence, Hong Kong, China
Extra, The Hole, New York, US
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, US
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, US
Lifeforce, Untitled Space, New York, US
The Parlor, V1 Gallery, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Swimmin in the Playground, Fifty 24 SF Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
Art Market San Francisco: Contemporary Art Fair, New Image Art, San Francisco, California, US
Selfie, Stephanie Chefas Gallery, Portland, Oregon, US
Cyan Projects, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg, Germany
2015
Project Pear, Stephanie Chefas Gallery, Portland, Oregon, US
Swim, New Image Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
2014
Girl Parts, Mudfire Gallery, Atlanta, GA, US
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)
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