The public is invited to attend a free public lecture by nationally recognized contemporary painter, Alyssa Monks. Monks will be at Townsend Atelier teaching a 3-day workshop with one evening open to the public.
Through slide presentation, Ms. Monks will talk about her work, her painting process and her journey as an artist. Considered one of the best realist painters in the country, Monks earned her B.A. from Boston College and she studied painting at Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence.
She went on to complete her M.F.A at the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative Art in 2001. She teaches and lectures at universities and institution nation-wide, and is an adjunct professor at the New York Academy of Art.
“My intention is to transfer the intimacy and vulnerability of my human experience into a painted surface. I like mine to be as intimate as possible, each brush stroke like a fossil, recording every gesture and decision.”
Ms. Monks’s paintings have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions including “Intimacy” at the Kunst Museum in Ahlen, Germany and “Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820-2009” at the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts, New York. Her work is represented in public and private collections, including the Savannah College of Arts, the Somerset Art Association and the collections of Howard Tullman, Danielle Steele and Eric Fischl.
Ms. Monks has been awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for Painting three times and is a member of the New York Academy of Art’s Board of Trustees. She is currently represented by Forum Gallery in New York City. Alyssa currently lives and paints in Brooklyn, NY
An Evening with the Artist: Lecture with Alyssa Monks will take place Saturday, Oct. 15 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Townsend Atelier, The Arts Building, 301 East 11th Street, Chattanooga. It is open to the public free of charge. For more info, call 423-266-2712.