Brooklyn-based John Monti is a mid-career sculptor who has moved from a Minimalist background toward a Pop stance that catches the eye through travesty. Once a maker of cool, lozenge-like wall reliefs, he now deliberately oversteps the line of good taste with works such as Cluster Study I (2012), a table-top work of urethane resin flowers with a chrome surface. The profusion of blossoms and spaghetti strands is both deeply sculptural and bordering on the scatological. Monti’s longstanding sense of craft is influenced by the absurd normality of his sculptures’ content; additionally, as he himself points out, his work is influenced by the Finish Fetish movement of West Coast artists such as Craig Kauffman. Reflecting on the materialism of American culture, Monti provides us with a mirror that reflects our headlong drive to acquire more and more things… see the entire article in the print version of December’s Sculpture magazine.
