At first glance the two works by Monique S. Desto look very similar: Pairing I and II depict a surreal landscape in dark purple. Both works share a similar composition of abstract forms, both are made of latex, and both use the same colors. However, they are not identical. The first image has rather clear outlines, while the contours in the other are blurred. The second image almost seems like a variation on the first, turned inside out—two moods of a shared visual world.
In the foreground of both works, there is a motif reminiscent of wireless Bluetooth headphones. The object finds itself literally in the wrong circumstances, in a landscape where it appears alienated and out of scale. It is lost and disconnected from everything around it, but, according to the work’s title, it is ready for pairing (i.e., establishing a connection). Yet it remains unclear what it is seeking to connect with exactly: its counterpart artwork, the viewer, or the landscape.
Desto paints with latex, which requires a mold painting technique. For Pairing, Desto carved the image once in wood and again in Plexiglas. The latex then—the top layer of the finished artwork—incorporates the impressions and structural traces of these two materials: a matte, soft grain, and a shiny and smooth surface. Thus, even after being detached from their carrier materials, the Pairing works remain connected to their former painting surfaces. Pairing I and II raise questions about closeness and difference, connection and detachment, recognition and strangeness. They refer to each other without giving up their independence.
Monique S. Desto (*1989, lives in Hamburg) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg and was awarded the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize in 2022. Desto’s works have recently been shown in solo and group exhibitions, including at Westwerk Hamburg (2024); Galerie Wassermühle Trittau (2024); Kunstverein Weiden (2024); Lothringer 13 Halle, Munich (2023); Defet, Nuremberg (2022); and Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Schwandorf (2022). Desto is a member of the artist collectives Galerie Duglas and phantom step.
Jahresgabe 2025
Monique S. Desto
Pairing I und Pairing II
2025
Pigmented Latex
24,5 x 35,5 cm
framed
2 unique paintings
800,- each incl. 7% VAT