Jonathan Monaghan

{{Infobox artist

| name = Jonathan Monaghan

| image =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1986|9|14|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York, U.S.

| death_place =

| training = New York Institute of Technology
University of Maryland

| alias =

| notable works =

| website = {{URL|https://jonathanmonaghan.com/|Jonathanmonaghan.com}}

| style = Video art

| movement = Post-Internet

}}

Jonathan Monaghan (born September 14, 1986 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York) is a contemporary visual artist who creates Post-Internet video art.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/3-d-printing-can-make-everyone-a-designer/2013/03/14/a5c47250-8807-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story_1.html |title=3-D printing can make everyone a designer |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2013-07-22 |accessdate=2013-08-17 |first=Mark |last=Jenkins}}{{cite news|url=https://bmoreart.com/2021/06/jonathan-monaghan-2021-sondheim-finalist.html |title=Jonathan Monaghan, 2021 Sondheim Finalist |work=BmoreArt |date=2021-06-18 |accessdate=2021-07-08 |first=Suzy|last=Kopf}}

Biography

Monaghan received his B.F.A. in computer graphics from the New York Institute of Technology in 2008.{{Cite web |title=Alumni Profile: Jonathan Monaghan |url=https://www.nyit.edu/news/profiles/alumni_profile_jonathan_monaghan |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=New York Tech |language=en}} Monaghan then went on to receive a M.F.A. from the University of Maryland.

Work

Monaghan's animations have been exhibited at the Sundance Film Festival{{cite web|url=http://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/new-frontier-projects-and-films-announced-for-2016-festival| title=Sundance Institute Celebrates New Frontier 10th Anniversary at 2016 Festival|publisher=Sundance Institute|accessdate=2015-12-05}} and the Palais de Tokyo.{{cite web|url=http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/182470/summer-exhibitions-at-palais-de-tokyo/| title=Summer exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo|publisher=e-flux|accessdate=2018-07-08}} Monaghan's work sits in numerous public and private collections such as The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

As he stated, "My first artistic interests were [...] video game designers and science fiction movies". His work Sacrifice of the Mushroom Kings is an eight-minute video of cryptic reproductions of video games characters from Street Fighter, G.I. Joe and Super Mario Bros.{{cite news |last=Jenkins |first=Mark |date=2012-01-26 |title=Jonathan Monaghan twists video games in exhibit at Curator's Office |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jonathan-monaghan-twists-video-games-in-exhibit-at-curators-office/2012/01/25/gIQA4kN5TQ_story.html |accessdate=20 February 2012 |newspaper=Washington Post}} He created the French penguin (2009), an "absurd and sad representation of power as a slave of itself"; Rainbow Narcosis (2012), a "journey through absurd worlds, loaded with historical and artistic references"; and Robot Ninja (2013), where "the environments become abstract and the spirit more masculine, almost macho".{{Cite web |last=Corona |first=Sarah |date=2013-08-26 |title=Embezzling the (un)real. Jonathan Monaghan |url=https://artefuse.com/2013/08/26/embezzling-the-unreal-jonathan-monaghan/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922163951/https://artefuse.com/2013/08/26/embezzling-the-unreal-jonathan-monaghan/ |archive-date=2015-09-22 |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=Arte Fuse}}

According to Token Supremacy: The Art of Finance, the Finance of Art, and the Great Crypto Crash of 2022, by Zachary Small, Monaghan created what is arguably the first NFT in 2013, when he processed the editions of his digital artwork 'Mothership' through the first iteration of a bitcoin blockchain registration framework called Keidom, later ascribe.{{cite book |last1=Small |first1=Zachary |title=Token Supremacy |date=2024 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=9780593536759}} In 2017, he released a series of digital futuristic Fabergé eggs.{{Cite web |date=2016-01-15 |title=Jonathan Monaghan's futuristic Fabergé |url=https://www.thephotophore.com/jonathan-monaghan/ |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=the PhotoPhore |language=en-GB}}

Monaghan is represented by bitforms gallery in New York.{{cite web|url=http://www.bitforms.com/artists/monaghan |title=bitforms gallery|accessdate=2015-05-10}}

Exhibitions

=Solo=

2014: Alien Fanfare (alien invasion), Studio 1469, Washington D.C.{{Cite web |date=2014-05-13 |title=Jonathan Monaghan's Alien Invasion: A Surrealist SCiFi World, in Dazzling CGI |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/editorial-jonathan-monaghans-alien-invasion-a-surrealist-scifi |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Artsy |language=en}}
"After Fabergé" The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
2016: Gotham (photographic dream cities), Galerie 22,48m², Paris{{Cite web |date=2016-09-23 |title=Postcard From Paris – Jonathan Monaghan's Gotham |url=https://www.theartblog.org/2016/09/postcard-from-paris-jonathan-monaghans-gotham/ |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Artblog |language=en}}
2017: Disco Beast (symbol of unicorns), bitforms gallery, New York{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Alex A. |date=2017-12-13 |title=JONATHAN MONAGHAN: The Disco Beast |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/12/artseen/JON-MONAGHAN-The-Disco-Beast |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |language=en-US}}
"Escape Pod" bitforms gallery, New York
"Robot Ninja" Market Gallery, Glasgow
2021: Den of Wolves (aesthetics of power), bitforms gallery, New York{{Cite web |date=2021-06-07 |title=Art Exhibits, Art Magazine, Contemporary Art, Art Blogs, Art Artists |url=https://artefuse.com/2021/06/07/jonathan-monaghan-den-of-wolves-at-bitforms-gallery-new-york-photo-story/ |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=ArteFuse |language=en-US}}
2022: Move the Way you Want (technology over ecology), The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.{{cite web |title=Intersections: Jonathan Monaghan |url=https://www.phillipscollection.org/event/2022-09-22-intersections-jonathan-monaghan |accessdate=2022-09-09 |publisher=Phillips Collection}}{{Cite web |last=Rule |first=Doug |date=2022-11-25 |title=Jonathan Monaghan at The Phillips Collection |url=https://www.metroweekly.com/2022/11/jonathan-monaghan-at-the-phillips-collection/ |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Metro Weekly |language=en-US}}