Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Cathy de Monchaux · September 16 - October 21, 1999

1018 Madison Avenue
September 16 - October 21, 1999

Press Release

Sean Kelly Gallery and Mitchell-Innes & Nash are pleased to announce a collaborative exhibition of new work by the British artist Cathy de Monchaux.

In this new body of work, de Monchaux continues to explore the tension between juxtaposing opposites: feminine and masculine, human and animal, attractive and repulsive, hard and soft, ecstatic and angst-ridden, saintly and demonical, functional and decorative. For example, a wide light box depicting a mirror image of a rural landscape with a spider web-like vulva as its center seduces the viewer into penetrating an imaginary world. On the floor, a round, luscious, dark brown velvet ottoman-shaped sculpture draws the viewer in and invites him to surrender to its mysterious, attractive powers.

De Monchaux's vision remains unique, independent and distinct, yet is embedded with symbolic references which bring to mind religion, shamanism, social taboos, Freud, Poe, de Sade, the Brothers Grimm, Gothic and Baroque art, Surrealism, but with a distinctively post-modern edge. Indeed, de Monchaux's new works rattle our senses, both emotionally and visually: odd, magnetic, intense, haunting, they linger in our memory and invade our dreams.

De Monchaux was born in 1960, received a B.A. from the Camberwell School of Art, an M.A. from Goldsmith's College and lives and works in London, England. She has exhibited internationally since 1988, has been included in the Biennale of Sydney, Australia, in 1992, the Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, in 1997, and the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery, London, in 1998. Solo exhibitions include a major exhibition in 1997 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, which later traveled to the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague. Upcoming solo exhibitions in 2000 include "Directions: Cathy de Monchaux" at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, and a "New Room for Contemporary Art" at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.

Exhibition Images

Kings Cross, Summer
1998
Oil on board
72 1/4 by 76 1/8 in. 183.5 by 193.5 cm.


Summer in the Studio, Pilar and Jacinto II
1997
Oil on board
58 1/8 by 53 1/8 in. 147.6 by 134.9 cm.


Cathy de Monchaux: Mordant Rapture


Cathy de Monchaux: Mordant Rapture





Cherry Tree, Winter
2006-7
Oil on board
36 by 42 1/8 in. 91.5 by 107 cm


Cherry Tree, Early January
2004
Oil on board
56 by 48 1/4 in. 142.5 by 122.5 cm


Cherry Tree, and Young Girl
2007-8
Oil on board
50 1/8 by 48 in. 127.5 by 122.5 cm.


Kings Cross, March Afternoon
1998
Oil on board
58 1/4 by 78 3/8 in 148 by 199 cm.


Christchurch, Spitalfields
1999-2000
Oil on board
56 1/2 by 51 1/4 in. 143.5 by 130.2 cm