Alyssa Monks: Breaking Point

New York, NY – From October 4 to November 3, 2018, Forum Gallery presents Breaking Point, an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Brooklyn-based artist, Alyssa Monks. The artist, whose progressive, figurative paintings have been exhibited in New York since 2006, is known for her bold, energetic and passionate paintings of women. Her TED talk has been viewed more than a million times, her paintings have been presented throughout the United States and in Europe and her work was recently featured in the television series, The Americans (FX) throughout its sixth and final season.

In the thirteen paintings and four drawings on view, Alyssa Monks strives to reach beneath the surface of her female subjects and portray their innermost feelings and desires. She says, “I usually go for the moment between feelings or expressions. Some emotion or experience is just starting to hit the subject or just about to leave. I want to create a space for the viewer as well as relate, empathize or connect to the subject…” That moment is the Breaking Point of the exhibition’s title, which also refers to the condition of women in today’s world, a condition of extraordinary tension and pressure, but filled with hope as the limits of personal power are pushed.

Monks’ subjects are women in the natural world, from the smallest (12 x 18 inches) to the largest (68 x 86 inches) painting in the exhibition. Many of the models are artists, whose own struggles for relevance, dignity and power echo those of Alyssa Monks and of women in society. They are searching for and finding the boundaries they need to cross, while surrounded by the rich color and muscular brushstrokes of Alyssa Monks’ technique.