“My heroines are both a critique of society and an affirmation of my desire to evoke freedom in a chaotic, saturated and obsessive world. My heroine is a powerful woman, mastering her seduction. She is a provocative and rebellious contemporary, at the same time represents the free woman outside social constraints.” Monika NOWAK
Monika NOWAK’s works are an ode to the Contemporary Neo-Pop Art Scene: dynamic, fun and bold. Her “Fantasy” narrative, told through the female persona, is an amplified immortalization of today’s goddess: glorious, dominant, and always imbued with energy and humor. These marvelously executed works are the kitsch-filled kitchen sink that defines Pop culture. Her comic strip heroines, seemingly detailed in body paint, are inked with the strips of our childhood. The result is a fresh and highly provocative, vivid display of nostalgia and consumerism that has defined Americana. Her reverence and grasp for these movements are fascinating, as her own origins are geographically other (she is of Polish descent and resides in France), yet she readily and skillfully exploits these worlds. With a maternal link in the theatrical, her own stint in the advertising world, a strong background in graphic arts, and multi-media manipulation these works are realized. The outcome is vivid and unfiltered works, which scream woman, empowerment, fun, and a new era of Pop at its best.
Working closely with a fashion photographer – equipped with his own home studio, and often a professional makeup artist, Monika exchanges ideas in the development of these iconic comic stripped works. The work is borne in those sessions but is not a fixed in mathematical formula. The photos gleaned from these sessions are then reinterpreted and metamorphosed by cutting the mouth of one with the eyes of the other. By exaggerating certain aspects of femininity, while maintaining a certain overall realism. The results are simply fantastic.