Dean Monogenis

Gallery Affiliations: Walter Maciel Gallery

Region: Northeast

Website: http://www.deanmonogenis.com

City / State: brooklyn, NY

I am most interested in the natural progression towards entropy. Construction sites continually inform my work. But I don't think of myself as a painter of architecture. I prefer the notion that I am a collector of it, rescuing it from its ordinary context. This probably explains why I like buildings best when they are under construction or in full- blown decay. The temporal offers the opportunity for extraction. Unfinished, architecture is ripe for interpretation.

Accordingly, I explore situational relationships of otherwise incongruous elements. An example would be a high rise at the foot of a glorious mountain or a "new construction" condo spawning out of an isolated field of vegetation. I paint these settings as utopias or fantasy environments. In such cases, my work becomes a commentary on globalization or expansion. While this may be true, I am not making an indictment. Expansionism and globalization are inevitable. I am more interested in exploring the awkward beauty inherent in development and decay.