Monair Hyman’s artistry has not only captivated the visual senses but has also left an indelible mark in the hearts and minds of those who have experienced it. In this section, we proudly present a selection of Monair’s publications. Discover the publications that have celebrated and showcased Monair’s work, shedding light on the profound impact of her artistry. Join us in celebrating Monair’s artistic journey, where her work speaks volumes and resonates with art enthusiasts and collectors alike.
LOOK WE HERE CURATING THE CARIBBEAN
CONSCIOUSNESS Exhibition
Monair Hyman ( Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair )
Monair Hyman’s artistic exploration during her time in Venice in 2023 by works in graphite, ink and collage critically engages with historical representations of the human body as spectacle, particularly within the context of the 19th – century Venice Biennale. By questioning the economies of visibility and the dynamics of the gaze that objectified and exoticized bodies. Hyman’s art challenges and seeks to rewrite the narratives of who is seen and who remains unseen, thus linking past injustices with contemporary awareness and resistance.
Luca Curci
Curator
Giulia Tassi
Project Manager
ITSLIQUID GROUP
Palazzo Albrizzi Capello, Venice. During the 60th Venice Biennale 2024
Feminist Visual Culture
Edited by Fiona Carson and Claire Pajarzikowska
Monair Hyman’s large canvases resist immediate recognition. There is no centralising focal point, no brilliant splashes of diverse colour and, most crucially, no overt object. Instead, in works such as Fugitive, one is presented with a flowing pattern of grey marks on a shining white ground, which have been dragged or disrupted by intermediary white strokes. The effect is of something out of focus or partially covered, and it is unclear whether these markings where once more visible (disappearing) or are just becoming visible (emerging), They simultaneously imply depth and surface, absence and presence, inside and outside, and work to unfix the body of the spectator: is one looking into, through, out of or from behind a screen?
Hyman’s works show a preoccupation with the ‘processes of reclaiming memory and examining experience’ They are consciously multilayered, referencing the stereotypical attributes of female artists (decorative marks and so on), the repetition of wallpaper or fabric, or the memories of elaborate ironwork. Such structuring devices are undone through the dragging and blurring effects that disrupt the binary oppositions, and through the patterns that never repeat.
The recognition of the presence of, and the need for, multiple perspectives and meanings is central to Hyman’s work and her interest in other cultures. The paintings literally and metaphorically explore the way in which patterns shape our lives and how memory, experience and the constructions of femininity are embodied. They also emphasise the instability of these conditions: they can be changed, and even undone, through the process of active intervention.
Painting. Critical review; Jenny Saville and Monair Hyman
Fran Lloyd
Head of School of Art and Design History at Kingston University and the MA Course Director for Art and Design.
Delicate Dissidence
Delicate Dissidence is a discourse on the materiality of memory, the critique of historical truths, the telling of stories, the keeping of secrets, the oscillation between or the blurring of boundaries between interior and exterior, surface and depth, the self and the other and how we conceal or reveal aspects of knowledge, history and discovery.
The discourse may effect a re- definition of what we see and know. A viewing displacement may occur in response to the delicate display of dissidence. Discoveries may be made which run counter to our expectations of how things are and how we take them to be.
Sarah Gibson. Curator Woodlands Art Gallery, London. Exhibition catalogue
Present Space
We live in an age when information is rapidly delivered and as quickly decoded or discarded, when opportunities for contemplation and reverie have to be deliberately created from the cacophony of both essential and inessential images and information that bombards us.
Monair Hyman’s paintings are poetic and touching in their delicate suggestiveness of hidden things and prompt notions of time flowing on like a river yet also of acute moments of stillness and now. She sets up riddles; the veiled surface is both barrier and invitation. Such ambivalences are charged with potential and we are forced to explore the dimensions of our imagination as we investigate the space and forms, focus on a tendril there, a flower here, lose both as we step back and gaze at the whole and make more discoveries as we move in closer. Gradually we become aware that it is not a repeated pattern but linear forms in a state of flux; that the dragged surface is subtlety modulated from near obliteration to feather-like touch that blurs. Monair Hyman’s work invites us to consider how we perceive what we see on the painted surface – and then how that might relate to our interior lives.
Mary Sarah. Art Critic.
Exhibition catalogue. Wrexham Art Centre, Wales.
Monair Hyman
Throughout this recent work, rich ornamental motifs emphasise the paintings’ surface.
Linear curves arranged in a variety of arabesques and floral forms sometimes occupy the entire surfaces of the painted panels. Varying speeds, directions and weight of image control the eyes movement around the surface of the picture plane, involving the spectator in labyrinth games which include false trails and abrupt ends. The eye is allowed to rest on solid forms that confirm organic associations, before being compelled once again to chase the wrought lines.
Atmosphere in the pieces is chiefly created by the combination of a monochrome palette and the density of their surfaces. Light and dark is explored by smudging and blurring the motifs, pictorial depth is regulated and, at the same time, controls the shadowy atmospheres that are contained between the images and the surfaces. Use of this technique determines the degree of information or misinformation offered to the spectator about the relationship of the picture surface and it’s interior depth. As a result, tension between the paintings surface and its depiction is maintained. Some paintings contain illusions that optically mislead the eye into believing that the motif is above the surface and casting shadows onto it. Motifs appear tentative or fragile, their lines varying in strength and definition down to the merest insinuation. Others appear solid and tangible, and cast shadows from imaginary light sources. Notions of the Baroque underpin the work with particular references to las rejas and los retiros. Las rejas being, ornamental screens which came to mean the pious distance between courting couples, as well as the opportunities of discreet rendezvous for illicit paramours. Illusions of beauty and wit were often contrived in their shadows for the sake of power and influence. References are made to los retiros which explore themes related to the baroque garden, spaces for privacy, refuge and contemplation.
Kevin O’Brien
Senior lecturer
Leeds Metropolitan University.
Catalogue For the exhibition
‘Monair Hyman’
Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds.
WITHIN LIMITATIONS
