Monique Martin | Context is Everything

October 1 - November 10, 2020 | downtown Edmonton

Springing from concrete and tile, indoors and out, mementos of summer bloom in Downtown Edmonton. Dandelions illuminate a way forward—to grow disruptively and unapologetically, to recompose harsh ground. Never bitter for being called a weed, the dandelion offers roots and leaves for nutrition and medicine, and, as a parting gift, seeds to carry on the wind our wishes for brighter futures. When emergent in impending snow and dark days, does a weed glow more gold? How will we grow with one another? Context is everything. 

Locations

Edmonton City Hall - 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square

Fairmont Hotel Macdonald - 10065 100 St NW

Melcor Building - 10117 Jasper Ave

Downtown Business Association - 10121 Jasper Ave

Edmonton Tower - 10111 104 Ave NW

Royal Alberta Museum - 9810 103a Ave NW

Armstrong Block Building - 10125 104 St NW

Monique Martin is a multi-disciplinary artist from Saskatoon, Canada. She has exhibited her artwork in more than 240 significant solo, invited and juried group exhibitions in ten countries. Renowned international curators have selected her artwork for various exhibitions worldwide. Her works are held in more than forty-four public and private collections in ten different countries.

Her work often uses significant symbols or comments on contemporary social issues. Monique creates bodies of work rather individual pieces and focuses on specific concepts, she undertakes extensive research prior to creating her work, often incorporating historically significant symbols and images to express her ideas. Her works push the boundaries of standard printmaking: enormous scale printmaking, installation based printmaking and working with three dimensions in printmaking.

Every action, interaction, and observation produces an energy that vibrates within her and connects her to the people with whom she is in contact. Sometimes a small incident, a promise only half-intended, a touch, or a casual remark, can set off a chain of events that will alter lives and change destinies. Like a pebble in a pond, the rings of energy keep moving outward from the initial touch, whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual or mental. It is in responding to these ever-changing ripples in the connections between humans that inspires her work. Her work utilizes ever-changing concepts and images because her art is a way of exploring who she is, who she was, who she is becoming, and where she fits into the world around her.

Monique was Artist-in-Residence for Disneyland Paris, Paris, France (2013), the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival (2013), the Saskatchewan Children's Festival (2012), Bytown Museum, Ottawa, Canada (2010), Spalding, United Kingdom (2008), Nice, France (2006), Vallauris, France (2006), Mount Vernon, USA (2004), Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia (2003) and Coaticook, QC, Canada (2001).

www.moniqueart.com