About us 
Monika Behrens
Monika has created work for the Friendship Wall/Group Galleries and a Solo Match Box Gallery. Tokyo Geidai Students also visited her COFA studio during our Sydney-Tokyo Exchange in 2006.
Artist Statement
The history of humankind is anything but humane. Our past is littered with war, oppression, and genocide. The present is said to be the era of post-modernism, post-feminism, post-totalitarianism. We are said to have civilized, liberalized, and feminized. My works refute this contention. Our past remains our present. We live in the era of post-progression.
Across the globe war, oppression, and violence prevail. Human behavior is as barbaric today as it was in the period before we came to think of ourselves as ‘civilized’. The Beslan siege, war in Iraq, Bali bombing, and Guantanamo Bay Prison are all testaments to this view.
The message I express through my paintings is that violence is both a barbaric way to deal with conflict and a senseless form of self-expression. The medium through which I articulate this view is still life painting. By employing vibrant colours, symbolism, confrontational composition and a style that is not contemporarily associated with political art, I believe my message is amplified. In this series I have used organic materials and toys to contrast perpetrators with victims; violence with peace; and destruction with sustenance.
Monika Behrens 2006
Monika is represented by Breenspace in Sydney and Gallerysmith in Melbourne
Links
Images © Monika Behrens and Match Box Projects
