Bio: Monica Church (b. 1964, Middlebury, Vermont USA) is an abstract artist working in painting, collage and printmaking. Working with found papers and support materials like boat sails, she examines a sense of place and transnational issues through visual juxtapositions. The artist studied at Rhode Island School of Design, n.d., and has a B.A. from Bennington College and an M.F.A. from The University of Kentucky.

Church has participated in shows at The Painting Center, New York; The Dorsky
Museum of Art, New Paltz NY; The Lockwood Gallery, Kingston NY; The Hyde
Collection, Glens Falls NY; among others. Her solo shows include Garrison Art Center, Vassar College’s Palmer Gallery; Womenswork.ART; Dutchess Community College Gallery; Chapman Friedman Gallery, Louisville, KY; LoRiver Arts Gallery and Go North, both in Beacon, NY. Dublin’s Blue Leaf Gallery featured her work at the Dublin Art Fair and the Edinburgh Art Fair.

In 2023, Church was a recipient of an Ora Schneider Regional Residency Grant at
Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY. This was her second residency at WSW, the first was in 2004. In May 2024, she participated in Berlinage # 1, a collage residency in Berlin, Germany. Church has a studio in Newburgh, NY.

Artist Statement: My first memory of sailing is from middle school. I went sailing with a friend on Lake Champlain on their Dad’s 30 foot sailboat. Not until my 30s did I learn to sail, but I have been sailing ever since. I am inspired by the majesty of sails. Since the invention of Dacron polyester in the 1950s sailcloth is rarely made of canvas duct anymore. I use upcycled sails made of Dacron or polyester laminates. These laminates may be imbedded with graphite, carbon and Kevlar fibers creating a light but strong structure that unfurls into space when filled with wind. These sails have both transparency and opaque surface areas and small attached pieces of yard called tell-tails that inform a sailor that they have caught the wind. They are both high tech and low tech. I am cutting, collaging, painting on and making silk screen prints using sails as my source material. Paris: Figure Walking is the result of xeroxing sailcloth and using the copies to make a
collage, that was then made into separate screens for hand printing.

Website: monica-church.com

Learn More: @monicadchurch