Approved: 08.05.2017

Monique Lovering

Artist

Archived
Approved: 08.05.2017

Sydney-based artist Monique Lovering, has a sophisticated visual-spatial intelligence. In her
work, the negative space is as formidable as the positive and it is this quality that results in
creations that vibrate with a visceral complexity.

Lovering’s command of colour is exceptional and she displays both expert restraint and
emancipation in its application. It can be

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  • Location: Sydney

Artist Statement

Sydney-based artist Monique Lovering, has a sophisticated visual-spatial intelligence. In her
work, the negative space is as formidable as the positive and it is this quality that results in
creations that vibrate with a visceral complexity.

Lovering’s command of colour is exceptional and she displays both expert restraint and
emancipation in its application. It can be sheer and diaphanous or hefty and textural. She
utilises a palette that is predominantly muted and monochromatic, favouring at turns every
shade of white, charcoals and sometimes the palest of pinks and lemons like an array of oldfashioned blancmange. Conversely, she employs soliloquys of jewel-tones that sing even the louder because of their paucity.

Another aspect of her aesthetic expression is the use of collage and mixed media. She also
has a unique, freestyle method of drawing and has this to say about the latter: “I often shut
my eyes and draw, relinquishing all control”. This experimental technique is an attempt on
Lovering’s part to manifest a free-flowing conduit between the conscious and the
unconscious mind and has since become her signature drawing style.

Lovering’s distinctive technique of layering paint, charcoal and mixed media may well be a
visual representation of the many stratums of personality that we all possess, commencing
with the so-called public face and voyaging back through the mille-feuille of the character to
the sacred, sequestered soul that resides at the centre of all of us. She has a unique artistic
process that does away with conventional preface and instead relies on her current state of
mind to reflect the natural honesty and inner workings of the unconscious psyche.

Her ongoing curiosity with the relationship between creative expression and the human
psyche prompted Lovering to commence studying Art Therapy in order to further explore
the two. As her studies draw to a close, Lovering visualises a future where her role as an Art Therapist dovetails effortlessly with her art practice and enhances her own evolution as a fine artist.

In the end, Lovering’s success as an artist lies in her capacity to wholly engage the viewer in
the mystery and sensuality of the abstracted dreamscape of the unconscious. She does so in
a guise that is thought provoking, awe-inspiring and ultimately, profoundly moving for the
yearning human spirit.

CV & Education

Monique Lovering

 

B. 1960, England

Lives and works in Sydney

 

 

EDUCATION

2015 - 2016 - Advanced diploma - Transpersonal Art Therapy, Sydney, Australia.

2003 - Summer school at Chelsea School of Art & The Slade, London, UK

1981 - 1983 - B.A. Fine Arts - Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Australia.

 

EXHIBITIONS
2017 - ESD Gallery, Sydney, Australia - Group show.
2015 - Saint Cloche, Sydney, Australia.
2014 - Sheffer Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2013 - My Micro Gallery, Milan, Italy.
2012 - Small Spaces, Sydney, Australia.
2008 - Desfinado, Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
2007 - Battersea Studios, London, UK.
2006 - Iroquois Gallery, London, UK.
2005 - Lo Spasimo art festival, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Group show.
2005 - Prince’s Drawing School, London, UK. Group show.

RESIDENCIES

2016 - Artist Studio - Bondi Pavilion, Sydney, Australia - 3 months.

 

Work appears internationally in private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA.
 

PUBLICATION

Belle Australia, 2016 / 'Sacred Space'
Real Living, Australia, 2015 / Matt Page
Elle Decoration, UK, 2012 / ‘Sicilian Style’
Elle, Italy, 2012 / ‘Il nuovo Sud’
Vogue Living, Australia, 2011 / ‘Wild life’

 

HISTORY

1988 - 2012 - Art Director / Freelance / Fulltime / International publishing houses in Auckland, Sydney, London and Milan.