Ian Monroe lives and works in London. Born in New York and raised in the planned community of Reston, Virginia, the artist received his MA from Goldsmith College, University of London in 2002. Monroe came to public attention in 2003 when the Saatchi Gallery featured a large-scale work from the artist’s MA show. Following such resounding success, the artist was included in Edge of the Real (2004), a group painting show at the Whitechapel Gallery. In 2005, Monroe’s work was also featured in a group exhibition in Berlin, at Upstairs Berlin, entitled Utopian Architecture. They Built Upon It (2005) at Haunch of Venison, Zurich was accompanied by the first major catalogue of Monroe’s work, including texts by poet and art critic, Barry Schwabsky, and by art writer, Sally O’Reilly.

Ian renders the promise and disappointment of modernity in its own language. From the vestigial materials of the suburban dreams of a cold world America – from wood grain walling to shag carpeting, garish orange to angular geometries – the artist creates large-scale collages on paper, in either monochrome or highly contrasting textures. Denying perspective and the viewer’s expectation of volumetric space, the artist’s depictions of cavernous but illusionary places propose that the project of utopian desire, however internally erroneous and eternally alienating, continues, wherein man is not only absent, but turned away.