Studio Sale 2023 | Monica Perez Vega

"A setting sun still beats heavy on our heads. Evidence of a recent brush fire leaves black twisted branches dangling; spiralling silhouettes draped against the dry yellow fields. Wild grapes grow among the charred arboreal remains. Lush figs turned to stone while walnut still boasts it verdant green. A covey of quail scamper among the ashy remains, their soft prattle heard through the web-coated bramble. 

'Wild grapes are an uncultivated entanglement; a dance of shape and line. They are gnarly, persistent and exist against great odds; a thriving luxuriance amidst aridity." -Monica 
-

Monica’s work explores ideas of uncertainty and adaptation and her imagined landscapes sit between nostalgia and unease. Originally from California, she has lived in Montreal, Amsterdam, London and presently Birmingham, UK. Her memories of home are warped by a changing landscape, and her experiences of continually starting over have led to a practice which investigates cycles of change. There is a fluidity and resilience to her practice which is guided by incident. She is interested in the potential between renewal or collapse and relies on disruption as a search for hope amid precarity.

Skies and trees are ongoing themes in her work. Skies are about transience while trees tell a story of steady resilience. Tree stumps are headless figures; embodiments of disruption, but also places where life quietly thrives. Trees elicit memories of home, as well as an aspiration towards rootedness.

Education: 
2022- Turps Correspondence Course
2019- MFA, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2005-BFA, with distinction, California College of the Arts, San Francisco 

Recent Solo exhibitions include: 
My Life in Trees, Birmingham and Midland Institute, Birmingham, 2021/ To the Trees, SUPA Gallery, Birmingham (Online), 2020/ Solo Exhibition, Rob Radamaker Gallery, Utrecht, 2015

Recent group exhibitions include: Worcester Open 2023 (Climate Change Edition), The Art House/Pitt Studios, Worcester, 2023/ Material Presence, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 2022/ Autumn Song, Malvern Library, 2022/ Lido Open, Lido Stores Margate, 2022/ EOP Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, 2022/ RBSA Prize Exhibition 2022, Birmingham/ nothing has changed, everything has changed, BEEP Painting Biennial 2022, Swansea/ Weary Harold, ASC Gallery, London, 2022/ ArtWorks Open 2020, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London/ The Collector’s Eye, LEMA Mobili, London, 2020/ 'Studio Visit,' No. 20 Arts, London 2019/ 'Raw Materials: Plastics,' Nunnery Gallery/ Bow Arts, London 2019.

www.monicaperezvega.com
Ig: @monicaperezvega