Monique Lacey
My sculptures begin with new commercial packaging materials purchased at local hardware stores which offer structural givens of both volume and surface. These flat-packed materials are assembled and then covered with plaster, paint, resin, rubber, wax, varnish and pigments which act as both binding agents and new surfaces to conceal or reveal the structure underneath.
While I adhere to truth to materials, these materials are also used to construct a level of artifice in the work. The transformation and elevation of the ordinariness of the humble cardboard box fascinates me. The initial building up of each form is countered by acts of crushing the cardboard boxes, which results in their forms being both damaged and substantially reconfigured. This act of crushing utilises my bodyweight, and might be variously read as playful, aggressive, cathartic or darkly humorous.
My work finds an initial footing in Minimalism, a largely male-dominated era, where artists such as Donald Judd made anonymous ‘specific objects’. While my work embraces the manufactured, utilitarian materials of the world as found objects, there is an emphatic emphasis on my interventions as a maker. There is physical labour involved in making the work, but not through overtly gestural conventions associated with the likes of Abstract Expressionism. Rather, my practice utilises apparently destructive gestures in order to create the work, and may offer a playful critique of both art movements. Further, their tensions between surface and form, image and object, collapse the distinction between sculpture and painting.
My work meets Minimalism out of an ascetic drive, and an “it is but it isn’t” adherence to the idea that the material is the material. However, it differs from Minimalism’s austerity in its rejection of cool, austere finishes. My work seeks to complicate the values associated with certain materials and the codes of art – a cardboard box as inexpensive and pedestrian, its coating of paint an embellishment of decorated skin – and leave these productive tensions unresolved.
Education:
2018 Master of Fine Arts (First Class Honours), Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design
2015 Advanced Diploma of Arts and Design, Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design
Upcoming:
Spring 1883, Melbourne, Australia
Bipartiss Solucius, Solo show, Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland, 5 - 24 October 2020
Matter., Group show, Gray Contemporary, Houston, Texas, USA
In the thick of it, West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia, 2 - 20 October, 2020
Disbend-Suspend, Sineresi, Italy
2020
Twenty One, Solo show project, Gray Contemporary, Houston, Texas, USA
Finalist Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards 3D, Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi - Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre, Whakatane, New Zealand
Mona Foma, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
2019
Bonanza, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Spring 1883, The Establishment, Sydney, Australia
Melbourne Art Fair, with West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia
Pah Homestead, The 28th Annual Wallace Art Awards Exhibition 2019, Auckland, New Zealand
Still No Answer; Contemporary Women Artists from Australia and New Zealand, The Vivian, Matakana, New Zealand
On the Verge, Solo show, Green Street Projects, Wellington New Zealand
Mothermother, Lot23, Auckland, New Zealand
Towards The Forest, The Vivian, Matakana, New Zealand
Auckland Art Fair, with The Vivian, Auckland, New Zealand
The Weight of the World, Solo show, The Vivian, Matakana, New Zealand
Puffery, Solo show, Gray Contemporary, Houston, Texas, USA
Group Show, Gray Contemporary, Houston, Texas, USA
The Summer Show, The Vivian, Matakana New Zealand
2018
The Golden Hour, The Vivian, Matakana, New Zealand
On Surface and Plane, Orakei Arthouse Auckland, New Zealand
Walker and Hall Art Award Finalists Group show, Waiheke Community Art Gallery Auckland, New Zealand
Bonanza, group show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
National Contemporary Art Awards Finalists Group show, Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand
Glaister Ennor Graduate Art Award Group show, Sanderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Orbital Launch Show, Comet Project Space, Auckland, New Zealand
Cul de Sac, Rm Gallery, Group show curated by Chloe Gheoghegan, Auckland, New Zealand
A line between two points, Solo show, The Vivian, Matakana, New Zealand
The Group Show, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand
Finale Postgraduate exhibition, Whitecliffe, Auckland, New Zealand
2017
Semi Final Group show, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
Crushed, West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia
Covfefe, Group show, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
Rematerialised, Group show curated by Glen Snow, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
Paperwork, Group show, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
2016
Priming, pouring, plastering, pooling, pushing, Group show curated by Glen Snow, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
Eating grapes while walking through a forest, Group show, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
(It’s pretty open) Drawing show, Group show, Demo, Auckland, New Zealand
2014
Outer Boundaries, Solo exhibition, Railway Street Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Lineation, Waikanae Arts Centre, Solo Exhibition, Waikanae, New Zealand
Corban's Open Studio Day, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
Corban Estate Neighbourhood Exhibition,
Affair of the heart, Northcote college, Auckland, New Zealand
Affordable Art show, Manukau, New Zealand
Baradene Art Show, Auckland, New Zealand
NZ Art Show, Wellington, New Zealand - "Interrupted" is selected as finalist painting in the Signature Art Award
Art Fusions, Carmel College, Group exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand
Auckland Grammar, Group exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand
Railway Street Gallery, Group Exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand
2013
Eleven, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
Affair of the heart, Group Exhibition, Northcote college, Auckland,
Affordable Art show, Group exhibition, Manukau, Auckland
Baradene Art Show, Group exhibiton, Auckland, New Zealand
NZ Art Show, Wellington, New Zealand
Art Fusions, Carmel College, Auckland, Group exhibiton
Art Expo, Auckland Grammar, Group exhibiton, Auckland, New Zealand
Paraparaumu Rotary Art Show, Group exhibiton , Paraparaumu, New Zealand
2012
NZ Art Show, Wellington, New Zealand
Affair of the heart, Northcote College, Auckland, New Zealand
Affordable Art Show, Manukau, New Zealand
Baradene Art Show, Auckland, New Zealand
Paraparaumu Rotary Art Show (received 2 merit awards for 2 paintings entered)
Corban Estate Arts Centre, Auckland, Projectspace, End of year exhibition "Eleven"
2011
The Original Art Sale, Manukau, Auckland
Here comes the sun, group exhibition, Papakura Art Gallery, Auckland
New Zealand Art Show, Wellington, New Zealand
NZ Art Guild Group Exhibition, Dunedin, New Zealand
Awards:
2020 Finalist Finalist Molly Morpeth Canaday Award
2019 Finalist Wallace Art Awards
2018 Finalist Contemporary Art Awards
2018 Finalist Walker and Hall Art Awards
2018 Finalist Glaister Ennor Graduate Art Awards
2014 Finalist Signature Art Awards
Residencies:
Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand
Gray Contemporary Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
Representation:
The Vivian Gallery, Matakana, New Zealand
West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia
Gray Contemporary, Houston, Texas, USA