A Trace Left by the Future

Opening Reception: First Friday, October 3, 6-9pm
Artist Talk and Bicycle Tour of Rochester's Gilded Age Architecture TBA

A Trace Left by the Future presents prints by Jonathan Monaghan that explore collective anxieties about a technology-driven future through the use of historical references. Using 3D modeling, Monaghan fuses Beaux-Art ornament, consumer electronics, and surveillance devices into fantastical, surreal forms that are at once playful and unsettling. These works highlight the fragility of our dependence on technology and consumer culture, transforming familiar objects into uncanny hybrids that blur the boundaries between past and future. Evoking the decadence of gilded-age aesthetics alongside the excesses of hyper-capitalism, the pieces expose parallels between historical opulence and today’s digital consumerism. Seductive in their colors and forms yet charged with unease, Monaghan’s objects invite reflection on the consequences of technological desire.

This exhibition in the LAB Space includes limited edition prints that the artist developed specifically referencing Rochester, NY's Gilded Age architecture for the accompanying public art installation Late Capital Pods.

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