Monica
Majoli

Born 1963 in Los Angeles, United States
Lives and works in Los Angeles, United States

«Monica Majoli is an artist, educator, and champion of others in Los Angeles’s art and queer communities. She is primarily a painter deeply invested in the traditions of the medium while exploring subjects tied to sex, sexuality, power, and alternative lifestyles such as BDSM.»

Her work often depicts scenes of sexual fetishism, a theme that serves as a decoy for larger underlying political concerns. Majoli’s work Investigates «themes and rituals of identity, intimacy, and mortality» and «is both a site for catharsis and an admission of its irresolution.» Her series, Black Mirror, includes portraits of women, «their profiles drawn in close-up in coloured pencil, forming a chiaroscuro effect on the sheets of black paper.

The «polished nocturnal portraits» are made from memory, and according to Majoli, «The otherworldly half-image that is reflected by black mirror coincides with both the internal state of desire and a crisis in belief in representational painting. In these works, the surface itself holds the fetishistic power, rather than the act depicted.»




ARTWORKS

Olympus (Erron/Archer) 2024 Watercolor woodcut transfer on paper, framed 150,5 x 214,5	Olympus (Vase / Charioteer) 2024 Watercolor woodcut transfer on paper, framed 150,5 x 214,5	Olympus (Youth / Erron) 2024 Watercolor woodcut transfer on paper, framed 150,5 x 115,5
Playguy (Ben) 2023 Watercolor woodcut transfer on paper, framed 138,4 x 199,1	Blueboy (Tom) 2023 Watercolor woodcut transfer on paper, framed 142,2 x 205,1 cm	Study Blueboy (Joe) 2017 Framed whiteline woodcut, watercolor on paper 53 x 74 cm
Untitled (Pam 1) 2014 Oil on panel 31,75 x 45,08 cm	Black Mirror (Jarrett 2) 2009 Framed colored pencil on black paper 26 x 35,5 cm	Black Mirror (Kate 1) 2010 Framed colored pencil on black paper 33,5 x 39,3 cm
Rubberman Bound 1 2007 Framed watercolor and gouache on paper 60,96 x 76,2 cm	Rubberman Bound 2 2007 Framed watercolor and gouache on paper 60,96 x 76,2 cm	Rubberman Bound 3 2007 Framed watercolor and gouache on paper 60,96 x 76,2 cm
Untitled 1992 Oil on wood panel 39 x 41 cm	Untitled 1994-1995 Oil on wood panel	Untitled 1990 Oil on wood panel 14 x 15.2.7 cm
EXHIBITIONS

Distant Lover 2009–2024 Kunstverein Düsseldorf 2024	Pam Air de Paris 2014	Black Mirror Air de Paris 2010
Rubbermen Bound Air de Paris 2007