At first glance, the two works by Monique S. Desto are very similar: Pairing I and II depict a surreal, dark purple landscape. Both share the same basic composition with their abstract forms, both works are made of latex, and both use similar colors. However, they are not identical: in one, the image appears with rather clear outlines, while in the other, the contours are blurred. The second image seems almost like a variation of the first, turned inside out, two moods of a shared visual world.
In the foreground of the motif is an object reminiscent of wireless Bluetooth headphones. It finds itself in literally the wrong circumstances in a landscape in which it appears greatly alienated from the usual scale. Lost and disconnected from everything around it, but according to the title, ready for pairing, i.e., establishing a connection. However, it remains unclear what it is seeking to connect with: its counterpart in the other work, the viewer, or the surreal landscape.
Monique S. Desto paints with latex, which requires a mirrored painting technique. For Pairing, Desto carved the motif of the two works once in wood and once in acrylic glass. The first layer of latex, now the top layer in the finished work, incorporates impressions and structural traces of the two painting surfaces—one with a matte, soft grain, the other shiny and smooth. Thus, even after being detached from their painting surfaces, the two Pairing works remain connected to their former counterparts. 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 (born in 1989, lives in Hamburg) studied at the AdBK 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), the Defet studio and gallery house, Nürnberg (2022), and the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Schwandorf (2022). Desto is a member of the two 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 similar unique pieces
800,- each incl. 7% VAT