Matty Mo
{{Short description|American artist}}
{{Orphan|date=March 2019}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Matty Monahan
| image = The artist, Matty Mo, who also goes by "The Most Famous Artist".jpg
| caption = Mo in 2018
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts
| nationality = American
| known_for = street art, contemporary art, collaborations
| movement = contemporary art, street art
| website = {{URL|themostfamousartist.com}}
}}
Matty Monahan (known professionally as Matty Mo{{cite web |last1=Kraus |first1=Rachel |title=Stunt artists who claim they're behind the alien monoliths sell new ones for $45,000 |url=https://mashable.com/article/who-made-monoliths-utah-california/?europe=true |website=Mashable |access-date=8 December 2020 |language=en}}) is a Los Angeles–based contemporary artist and marketing entrepreneur best known for creating the conceptual art group, "The Most Famous Artist." Through this platform, Monahan makes social media-themed installations, performance art and exhibitions to challenge viewers to examine how technology and the Internet impact society.{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/felicitycarter/2017/06/27/the-most-famous-artist-art-meets-ai/#3402b9321b7d|title=The Most Famous Artist: Art Meets AI|last=Carter|first=Felicity|work=Forbes|access-date=2017-12-11|language=en}} In 2017, Forbes published a feature on Monahan, promoting his innovative outlook on technology. That same year, ABC News reported on his large-scale public installation in Los Angeles where he painted three residential homes bright pink as a commentary on class, community and digital legacy.{{Cite news|url=http://abc7.com/realestate/vacant-homes-become-pink-hued-art-in-mid-city-/2099800/|title=Vacant homes become pink-hued art in Mid-City|last=about|first=anabel munoz, bio|date=2017-06-14|work=ABC7 Los Angeles|access-date=2018-01-15|language=en-US}} Monahan's "#selfiewall" in the Venice Beach neighborhood in Los Angeles was dubbed by Los Angeles Magazine as being "The Most Instagramable Wall in L.A." and ABC's Nightline said his art is an "instagramer's dream."{{Cite news|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-gram-instagram-project|title=Exclusive: Gucci Collaborates With Artists on an Instagram Initiative|work=Vogue|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/matty-mo-aka-the-most-famous-artist/|title=Matty Monahan, AKA The Most Famous Artist, Paints Uber-Popular Selfie Backdrops All Over L.A. - Los Angeles Magazine|date=2016-02-01|work=Los Angeles Magazine|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://abc.com/shows/nightline/video/vdka13119972|title=Nightline {{!}} Meet Matty Mo, 'The Most Famous Artist' you've never heard of|website=ABC|language=en|access-date=2019-12-17}}
Early history
Before creating the group, "The Most Famous Artist," Monahan attended Stanford University and had a career in advertising technology.{{Cite news|url=http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/matty-mo-aka-the-most-famous-artist/|title=Matty Mo, AKA The Most Famous Artist, Paints Uber-Popular Selfie Backdrops All Over L.A. - Los Angeles Magazine|date=2016-02-01|work=Los Angeles Magazine|access-date=2017-12-11|language=en-US}}
"The Most Famous Artist"
Monahan launched his platform, "The Most Famous Artist," in 2013 when he began taking preexisting paintings and adding something to them or painting over their surface.{{Cite news|url=http://www.widewalls.ch/the-most-famous-artist-meaning/|title=Who is The Most Famous Artist ? Contributing to a Discussion on Meaning in Art|work=Widewalls|access-date=2017-12-12}} This concept of appropriation is a longstanding one in art history and was used by iconic artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol.{{Cite web|url=https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/matty-mo/|title=Matty Mo|website=Widewalls|access-date=2017-12-12}} Mohanan, however, adds an awareness of digital promotion and social media to this technique that modernizes its impact.{{Cite news|url=http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/matty-mo-aka-the-most-famous-artist/|title=Matty Mo, AKA The Most Famous Artist, Paints Uber-Popular Selfie Backdrops All Over L.A. - Los Angeles Magazine|date=2016-02-01|work=Los Angeles Magazine|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/26/17906670/instagram-founders-quit-facebook-influencers-react|title=What 10 influencers and artists have to say about Instagram's co-founders quitting|last=Tiffany|first=Kaitlyn|date=2018-09-26|website=Vox|access-date=2019-02-16}}
= "100 Thousand Dollars," 2016 =
In 2016, Mohanan created ten works, each one resembling a stack of one thousand $100 bills; however, only the bills on the top and bottom of the stacks were visible making their literal monetary value a mystery. The stacks were priced at $5,000 each and the first sold within twenty minutes of being posted on Instagram.{{Cite news|url=https://www.widewalls.ch/artist-sells-money-art/|title=This Artist Sells Money as Art - 100, 000 for 5, 000 Dollars ?|work=Widewalls|access-date=2017-12-12}} While buyers could look through the stacks of cash to count their actual monetary value, Mohanan added a seal to each piece that keeps all the bills together and said it will become an illegitimate art object should that seal be broken.{{Cite news|url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/the-most-famous-artist-100000-instagram-art/|title=Meet the man selling bundles of cash on Instagram and calling it art|date=2016-04-18|work=Digital Trends|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en-US}}
= "The Pink House" (2017) =
In 2017, "The Most Famous Artist" group painted three houses in a Los Angeles residential neighborhood bright pink that were scheduled for demolition and to be replaced by a high-end apartment building.{{Cite news|url=https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/california-today-batman-a-true-angeleno.html|title=California Today: Batman, a True Angeleno|newspaper=The New York Times|language=en|access-date=2017-12-12|date=2017-06-16|last1=Bromwich|first1=Jonah Engel}} The installation was embraced on social media but also seen as an important lens on gentrification and community displacement.{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4821816/pink-houses-los-angeles/|title=People Are Going Wild for Some Controversial Hot Pink Houses|magazine=Time|access-date=2017-12-12}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.teenvogue.com/story/millennial-pink-houses-in-los-angeles|title=These Houses Were Painted ENTIRELY Pink and They're Begging You to Instagram Them|last=Weiner|first=Zoë|work=Teen Vogue|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.elle.com.au/culture/pink-houses-instagram-la-13439|title=Pink Houses For Instagram in LA|website=ELLE|language=en|access-date=2017-12-12}}{{Cite news|url=http://laist.com/2017/06/13/nomadica_wine.php#photo-1|title=Do Not Instagram These Pink Houses, They Are A PR Stunt To Sell Rosé|work=LAist|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226142323/http://laist.com/2017/06/13/nomadica_wine.php#photo-1|archive-date=2017-12-26|url-status=dead}}
= "Artificial Intelligence: THE END OF ART AS WE KNOW IT", 2017 =
In 2017, the group mounted a solo exhibition at The McLoughlin Gallery in San Francisco where they partnered with anonymous hackers to build an artificial intelligence capable of analyzing and reproducing art styles of iconic artists, such as Chuck Close. The first group of images is a series of portraits of people, including: factory workers, art dealers, pilots, artists and taxi drivers, whose jobs could one day by eliminated by artificial intelligence.{{Cite news|url=http://mashable.com/2017/06/28/ai-art-most-famous-artist/|title=Artist ironically uses AI to make portraits of people with jobs likely displaced by AI|last=Lekach|first=Sasha|work=Mashable|access-date=2017-12-11|language=en}} This exhibition serves as starting point for a discussion about the challenges facing humanity in light of big data, AI and robots.{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@gomattymo/artificial-intelligence-the-end-of-art-as-we-know-it-bc6655fb18b6|title=Artificial Intelligence: THE END OF ART AS WE KNOW IT|last=Artist|first=The Most Famous|date=2017-06-26|website=Medium|access-date=2017-12-11}} In 2019, one of the artworks from this exhibition, an AI-created portrait of Mark Zuckerberg, was featured on the cover of Rotman Management Magazine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/Connect/Rotman-MAG/Back-Issues/2019/Back-Issues---2019/Winter2019-DisruptiveIssueII|title=The Disruptive Issue II (Winter 2019) - Rotman School of Management|website=www.rotman.utoronto.ca|access-date=2019-12-17}}
= "The Private Jet Experience," 2018 =
Simulating the experience of flying on a luxury private jet, the group built an interactive installation that, when photographed from a particular angle, makes participants appear to be on a luxury Gulfstream G3. The purpose of the experience is entirely for social media optics, an approach Forbes called "brilliantly outrageous."{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/felicitycarter/2018/11/18/the-private-jet-experience-by-the-most-famous-artist-and-selfiecircus/|title=The Private Jet Experience By The Most Famous Artist And SelfieCircus|last=Carter|first=Felicity|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2019-02-16}} The work was installed in the Fred Segal store in Los Angeles and is set to travel around the country, including Miami Beach during Art Basel in 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.miamiherald.com/miami-com/things-to-do/article225811500.html|title=Do it for the 'gram: Don't miss these at Art Basel installations|website=miamiherald|language=en|access-date=2019-02-16}}
= "The Fyre Experience," 2019 =
As homage to the Fyre Festival in 2017, The Most Famous Artist built a selfie-centric installation satirizing the failed music event.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thisisinsider.com/fyre-experience-installation-lets-people-pretend-they-are-at-festival-most-famous-artist-la-2019-1|title=An artist has created an installation called 'The Fyre Experience' which allows people to take pictures pretending they're at the failed festival|last=Hosie|first=Rachel|website=INSIDER|access-date=2019-02-16}} The installation recreated infamous details from Fyre Festival as possible: cardboard cutouts of celebrities who endorsed the festival, cheese sandwiches in polystyrene containers, stacks of fake money, a simulated hot tub full of Evian bottles and a sandy beach with a Bahamas background.{{Cite web|url=https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/31/can-now-get-fyre-festival-experience-never-beverly-hills-pop-shop-8418641/|title=You can pretend to be at Fyre Festival with 'ultra luxurious' pop-up|date=2019-01-31|website=Metro|language=en|access-date=2019-02-16}}
Also in 2019, Hulu and Netflix each released documentaries on the failure, Fyre Fraud and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, which partially inspired this project.{{Cite web|url=https://www.shemazing.net/no-smoke-without-fyre-a-gas-mock-experience-has-been-made/|title=No smoke without Fyre: A GAS mock experience has been made|website=SHEmazing!|access-date=2019-02-16}}{{Cite web|url=https://nylon.com/fake-fyre-festival-pop-up|title=You Can Eat A Cheese Sandwich In A Box At This Fyre Festival "Experience" Pop-Up|date=2019-02-01|website=NYLON|language=en|access-date=2019-02-16}}
= "Matty Marries Miley," 2019 =
Nearing the one-year anniversary of Miley Cyrus's short lived marriage to Liam Hemsworth, Monahan proposed to Cyrus on social media--a stunt to amplify his credibility as a performance artist.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eonline.com/news/1104645/miley-cyrus-comments-on-marriage-1-year-after-liam-hemsworth-wedding|title=Miley Cyrus Has a Totally Realistic Response to This Marriage Proposal|date=2019-12-19|website=E! Online|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-19}}{{Cite web|url=https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2019/12/miley-cyrus-makes-fun-of-short-marriage-liam-hemsworth/|title=Miley Cyrus Makes Fun Of Short Marriage to Liam Hemsworth|date=2019-12-19|website=RadarOnline|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-19}} Cyrus publicly responded to the post, saying “it probably won’t last long, but always down to try. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”{{Cite web|url=https://popcrush.com/miley-cyrus-marriage-liam-hemworth/|title=Miley Cyrus Pokes Fun at Short Marriage to Liam Hemsworth|last=Reda|first=Natasha|website=PopCrush|language=en|access-date=2019-12-19}}
= "The Monolith," 2020 =
In 2016, a metal pillar monolith, the Utah Monolith, was placed in San Juan County, Utah. Since then, similar mysterious and unauthorized pillars have appeared in California, Nevada, the United Kingdom, Romania and the Netherlands.{{Cite news|last=Bahr|first=Sarah|date=2020-12-07|title=California Men Declare Themselves Makers of Pine Mountain Monolith|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/arts/design/monolith-artists-reveal-themselves.html|access-date=2020-12-07|issn=0362-4331}} As the most famous artist claimed he was behind the monoliths, shortly after a video surfaced of The Who actually made the monoliths. {{Cite web|last=Kraus|first=Rachel|title=Stunt artists who claim they're behind the alien monoliths sell new ones for $45,000|url=https://mashable.com/article/who-made-monoliths-utah-california/|access-date=2020-12-07|website=Mashable|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Froelich|first=Paula|date=2020-12-05|title=Artists group takes credit for mysterious Utah monolith|url=https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/artists-group-takes-credit-for-mysterious-utah-monolith/|access-date=2020-12-07|website=New York Post|language=en-US}}
Public Speaking
In 2016, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's Artinfusion Insight program hosted Monahan to speak about his innovative use of social media in his art and, in 2017, he delivered lectures at Sotheby's Institute of Art and at the Tech Open Air conference in Berlin.{{Cite web|url=https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/artinfusion-insight-matty-mo-the-most-famous-artist/|title=Artinfusion Insight » Matty Mo "The Most Famous Artist" {{!}} Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art|website=crystalbridges.org|language=en-CA|access-date=2017-12-12}}{{Cite news|url=https://toa.berlin/conference/#matty-mo|title=Tech Open Air Conference & Speakers|work=Tech Open Air|access-date=2017-12-11|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.amirapress.com/video/t_DBzlArMBWYg|title=The Most Famous Artist at Sotheby's Institute of Art|website=www.amirapress.com|access-date=2017-12-11}}
ABC's Nightline, 2019
ABC News produced the video, "Meet Matty Mo, 'The Most Famous Artist' you've never heard of," the most comprehensive account of Monahan's platform and art to date. In the interview, Monahan discusses the integral role the internet plays in his installations but also the ways in which he is inspired by, and further extends, concepts derived from art history.{{Cite web|url=https://abc.com/shows/nightline/video/vdka13119972|title=Nightline {{!}} Meet Matty Mo, 'The Most Famous Artist' you've never heard of|website=ABC|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}} Specifically, Monahan explores art monetization in a manner similar to Kaws, participatory installations similar to Yayoi Kusama, and headlines and stunts to broaden his message similar to Banksy's approach.
References
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Category:Artists from Los Angeles