PRESENTATION:Jonathan Monk – dreamideamachine ART VIEW

Jonathan Monk replays, recasts and re-examines seminal works of Conceptual and Minimal art by variously witty, ingenious and irreverent means. Through wall paintings, monochromes, ephemeral sculpture and photography he reflects on the tendency of contemporary art to devour references, simultaneously paying homage to figures such as Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha, Bruce Nauman and Lawrence Weiner, while demystifying the creative process. Monk is constantly asking ‘what next?’.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Callirrhoë Gallery Archive

Jonathan Monk presents his first solo exhibition in Greece, offering a compelling engagement with the mechanisms of artistic value, identity, and the lingering myth of originality. Known for his sharp wit and conceptual rigor, Monk has built a distinguished career by continually revisiting and subverting seminal works of 20th-century conceptual art. Spanning neon installations, redacted paper works, sculpture, photography, and film, his practice demystifies the creative process by treating existing cultural materials as raw fodder. As Monk famously stated in 2009: “Appropriation is something I have used in my art and worked with since I entered fine arts in 1987. Back then (and even now) I realized that being original is almost impossible. So I started using what was already available as a source for my works.”

In his Athenian show, Monk expands this inquiry to explore how monetary, social, and cultural worth are assigned both within the gallery walls and in broader society. This theme is most vividly embodied in his ongoing neon series, “Used Cars”. Rendered in luminous, colorful neon typography, each piece in the series displays a specific financial figure corresponding to the current market value of a second-hand automobile. Crucially, these figures are not static; every time theworks are installed in a new city, Monk recalculates the prices to reflect the local second-hand car market of that specific region. By linking the financial indicator of a contemporary artwork to the mundane material economy of used vehicles in Athens, Monk draws a direct line between commodity trade and art market speculation. The resulting fluctuation in price becomes a visceral metaphor for the fluidity of social, material, and cultural status.

A complementary transformation of utility and status unfolds in the long-running series “People I have met”. Here, Monk turns his attention to the ubiquitous ephemera of professional networking: the business card. Using standard white correction fluid, the artist systematically whites out the printed names, titles, phone numbers, and addresses from cards collected over years of personal encounters. What once functioned as active instruments of career advancement and personal contact are transformed into redacted, minimalist relics. By stripping these cards of their identifying data, Monk obscures the social clout attached to the individuals while emphasizing the anonymous, painterly mark of erasure itself.

The exhibition culminates with “Self Portrait with Blond Hair”, an enigmatic work depicting a figure almost entirely devoid of recognizable facial traits. In erasing the definitive markers of his own likeness, Monk redirects the viewer from ego-driven self-representation to a fundamental, recurring question that sits at the core of his entire career: “After what?”. By continually stripping away claims to absolute originality, pristine identity, and fixed market value, Monk leaves us in a productive space where artistic creation remains an open, endlessly negotiated conversation.

Info: Callirrhoë Gallery, Sina 9, Athens, Greece, Duration: 2-31/10/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri 11:00-19:00, Thu 11:00-20:00, Sat 12:00-16:00, https://callirrhoe.info/