Late Capital Pods

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears... their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” — Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Late Capital Pods is a series of large-scale images by Jonathan Monaghan that reimagine Rochester’s Gilded Age architecture as opulent, spacecraft-like forms—hybrid objects that hover between historical ornament and futuristic relic. Referencing Fabergé eggs, luxury design, and sci-fi aesthetics, these surreal structures are composed of local architectural fragments, bejeweled with elements of contemporary technological surveillance: smartwatches, cell towers, and security cameras.

By conflating the architecture of historical affluence with omnipresent consumer electronics, the series explores the shifting dynamics of wealth in the age of hyper-connectivity. These works serve as monuments to a new form of techno-baroque capitalism, where power, luxury, and data eerily converge.

These artworks draw inspiration from the following buildings in Downtown Rochester (left to right): the Powers Building (1869), designed by Andrew Jackson Warner; the HH Warner Building (1884), designed by Louis P. Rogers; and the Granite Building (1893), designed by J. Foster Warner. All three are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were constructed during the Gilded Age in New York—a period of rapid industrial and urban expansion, marked by both immense wealth and stark inequality.

Opening Reception: First Friday, June 6
*Jonathan will also be exhibiting new and recent prints at RoCo, to be announced soon!

About the Artist

Jonathan Monaghan is a contemporary artist whose prints, sculptures, and immersive video installations weave together elements of ancient mythology, science fiction, and popular culture. His work explores the intersections of art history, power, and technology in the digital age, in an imaginative and satirical critique that challenges viewers to examine their relationship with these forces.
Past exhibitions include The Sundance Film Festival, The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, bitforms gallery in New York, and The Palais de Tokyo in Paris. His work has been featured in The New York Times and Vogue Italia. His work has been auctioned at Sotheby’s and sits in numerous public and private collections including The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and the Microsoft Art Collection. Born in Rockaway Beach, Queens, he received his BFA from the New York Institute of Technology in 2008 and his MFA from the University of Maryland in 2011. He lives and works in Washington D.C. @jonmonaghan

Public Art at RoCo

RoCo’s public art program enlivens the East Avenue neighborhood with temporary, site-specific public sculptures and special projects. Support provided by The New York State Council on the Arts, Farash Foundation, Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust, The County of Monroe, Richard Schwartz, Anne Havens, and Members of RoCo! This installation is presented in partnership with Christ Church and adjacent to the Cooney Family Garden.