Alyssa Monks is an American artist with an impressive curriculum vitae of prestigious exhibitions. She has had many solo shows at distinguished New York and Californian galleries and features in numerous international collections. Since graduating with an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2001, her work has enjoyed widespread exposure and critical acclaim. The Pontone Gallery is delighted to exclusively showcase these latest paintings at their Chelsea exhibition space.

Alyssa Monks paints the body, specifically her own, as an unblinking study of self. What she is most well known for is a long cycle of paintings of the figure in a bathroom, viewed through the glass of a shower screen, the vinyl of the shower curtain, or immersed in the bath.

The resultant images show the body compressed against the picture plane, sluiced and distorted by the steamy, vaporous and foaming medium. To begin with, these paintings are executed in a classical, almost photo-realistic, style. This gradually gives way to a more expressive and painterly handling, which alludes to, and articulates, the perceptual distortions of the hazy, erotically charged atmosphere.