American artist Jonathan Monaghan challenges the boundaries between fiction, reality and the virtual world with his new solo show at Gallery 22,48 m2 in Paris. The New York-born artist developes today’s collective fears such as the idea of a controlling authority, the obsession with wealth and technology in a series of works that range from sculptures, prints, installations to video animations. Psycho-sexual, seductive and menacing at times, Monaghan‘s art subtly questions and explores the materialism of the human species and its dependece from technology and commodities. 

In the looping video “Scroll” an endless column of plastic, architecture, and fabric takes on organic qualities and spores futuristic seeds, suggesting technology itself as a reproducing life form and highlighting an ambiguous relationship with the natural. Construction through deconstruction is one of Monaghan‘s signature elements, visible in a series of inkjet prints and 3D-printed sculptures, created through the painstakingly transformation of luxury apartment buildings erected during the explosion of wealth in the late 19th into lusciously detailed and surreal vignettes. Monaghan’s digital imagery mixes these elaborate Beaux Art facades with luxury fabrics, futuristic contraptions, and fur, thus exploring contemporary desires and technological dehumanization.