Matt Monk Art Exhibition

Opening Reception: 6 p.m. on Jan. 21

Matthew Monk is a visual artist, graphic designer, and educator in Winston-Salem, NC, who exhibits collage and mixed-media works extensively. His work is in collections across the US and abroad. Monk is on the faculty in the MFA in Graphic Design program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he served as Academic Dean from 2012 through 2024. H,e previously taught for twenty years at Rhode Island School of Design in the graphic design department. Monk's book design practice has earned numerous awards for clients including The National Gallery of Art, Yale University Press, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Metropolis Books, The Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design, and Wellesley College, among others.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

In my collage/mixed media work, the purity of ideas collides with the impurity of the physical world. I am influenced by all things decayed, worn, eroded, weathered, murky, humble, and imperfect – particularly as they engage in dialogue with order, clarity, structure, systems, rationality, and logic. I work primarily with discarded and found materials, seeking to uncover meaning in the meaningless and value in the worthless. My work is the result of cumulative layers of additive and subtractive processes, including painting, gluing, scraping, sanding, tearing, erasing, correcting, and patching. A rich and complex history of each piece is rendered evident through the accretion of these unexpected materials and varied processes.