Monica's work explores ideas of uncertainty and adaptation and her imagined landscapes sit between nostalgia and unease. Originally from California, memories of home are warped by a changing landscape and experiences of continually starting over have led to a practice which investigates cycles of change.
Skies and trees are ongoing themes in her work. Her interest in skies is about transience, within a wider concern for the environment, while trees on the other hand, are anthropomorphic figures which tell a story of steady resilience. Tree stumps are headless figures; embodiments of disruption, but also places where life quietly thrives. Monica is interested in the precipice between renewal and collapse and relies on disruption as a search for hope amid precarity.
Monica has an MFA in painting from the Slade School of Art and a BFA in painting and drawing from the California College of the Arts. She also completed the Turps Correspondence Course, 2022. Recent exhibitions include: Procreate Project Archive Arts Trail, Procreate Project x Air Gallery, Manchester, 2023/ FEMME, Ladies Drawing Clüb, 2023/ Mud-luscious: the resilience of joy, Malvern Library, Great Malvern, 2023/ The Worcester Open 2023 (Climate Change Edition), The Art House, Worcester (Honourable mention)/ Material Presence, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 2022/ Lido Open, The Lido Stores, Margate, 2022/ BEEP Biennial, Swansea, 2022/ Weary Harold, ASC Gallery, London, 2022/ The Art Works Open 2020, BAGT, London/ 'To the Trees,' solo exhibition, SUPA Gallery, Birmingham, 2020/ The Collector’s Eye, LEMA Mobili, London, 2020/ 'Studio Visit,' No. 20 Arts, London 2019/ 'Raw Materials: Plastics,' Nunnery Gallery/ Bow Arts, London 2019.