ABOUT
Monica’s work explores ideas of uncertainty and adaptation and her imagined landscapes sit between nostalgia and unease. Originally from California, she has lived in Montreal, Amsterdam, London and Birmingham, UK. Her memories of home are warped by a changing landscape, and experiences of continually starting over have led to a practice which investigates cycles of change. Her interest in skies is about both transience and presence, as well as a wider concern for the environment. Trees on the other hand, are anthropomorphic figures which tell a story of steady resilience.
Monica paints in a range of media and her sculptures are assembled from found, gifted and reclaimed material, including former paintings. There is an act of letting go within her practice as she embraces endings as beginnings. Interested in the potential between renewal or collapse, she relies on disruption as a search for hope amid precarity.
She has recently been awarded an Arts Council DYCP grant: Greening My Practice.
EDUCATION
- 2022 Turps Correspondance Course
- 2019 MFA Slade School of Fine Art, London
- 2005 BFA California College of the Arts, San Francisco
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025
- The Incidentals, Bell House, London (Upcoming)
- Solo Exhibition, FLUX, Lauderdale House, London
2024
- Exeter Contemporary Open 2024, Exeter Phoenix, Devon
- Blink Room share 6, Safehouse 1, London
- It Rose and It Fell, Terrace Gallery, London
- England is a Forest, Sluice [Vernacular] Colchester, 2024
- Bury My Songs, Terrace Gallery, London
2023
- The Hari Art Prize, The Hari Hotel, London
- Procreate Project Archive Arts Trail, Procreate Project x Air Gallery, Manchester
- FEMME, Ladies Drawing Club
- Colour & Poetry: A Symposium, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
- Mud-luscious: the resilience of joy, Malvern Library, Great Malvern
- The Worcester Open 2023 (Climate Change Edition), The Art House, Worcester (Honourable mention)
2022
- The Hazards, MidwestNice Art, Online
- Material Presence, Fitzrovia Gallery, London
- Autumn Song, Malvern Library, Great Malvern
- Lido Open 22, Lido Stores, Margate
- Pocket Thicket, Brixton Beneficiary, ASC Project Space, London
- EOP Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
- RBSA Prize Exhibition 2022, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
- nothing has changed everything has changed, Beep Painting Biennial, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
- Colour & Poetry: A Symposium, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
- Weary Harold, ASC Gallery, London
2021
- Solo Exhibition, My Life in Trees, Birmingham and Midland Institute, Birmingham
- Wild Grapes, Unit 3, London
- Ikon for Artists, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
- Colour & Poetry: A Symposium, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL online event and exhibition
- Life on Venus, The Tub Hackney, London
2020
- ArtWorks Open 2020, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London
- RBSA Prize Exhibition 2020, RBSA, Birmingham
- Qube Arts Open, Qube Gallery, Oswestry, Shropshire
- Solo Exhibition, To the Trees, SUPA Gallery, Birmingham (Online)
- The Collector’s Eye, LEMA Mobili, London
- Retrograde, The Old Print Works, Birmingham (Postponed)
2019
- Studio Visit, No. 20 Arts, London
- Orbit UK Art Graduates Show, OXO Bargehouse, London
- Limbo, Slade School of Fine Art, London
- MFA degree show, Slade School of Fine Art, London
- Raw Materials: Plastics, Nunnery Gallery/ Bow Arts, London
- Distant Heres, The Stone Space, London
- How Are You, Babe?, Blank 100, London
- Nomenclature of Colours, Slade Research Centre, London
2018
- Dark to Light, 35 Chapel Walk, Sheffield
- Sammelwut, Nijmegen
- Slade Interim Show, London
- Wells Art Contemporary, Wells
- Beep Painting Biennial, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
- Liquitex x White Walls Mural, London
- The Field, ASC Gallery, London
ADDITIONAL
2025
- CUH Arts commission, NCCU, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge
2024
- Liquitex [bio-based acrylic] Mural at London Graphic Centre, London
2023–24
- Arts Council DYCP Grant recipient: ‘Greening MY Practice’
2022
- Workshop facilitator, Art in Heart, CIC, Birmingham
- Guest Artist, Ikon Slowboat, Walsall
- ‘Common Ground’ CPD, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
- Associate Artist, Ikon gallery/ in collab. with local schools, Birmingham
2021
- Guest Artist/ Workshop Leader, Gallery 37/ Punch Records, Centrala, Birmingham
- Adult Creative Workshop, Ikon gallery, Birmingham
- Family Saturday art workshop, Ikon gallery, Birmingham (online)
2020
- Co-Director & Artist-Curator, Small Works Art Gallery, London/Birmingham
- Materials Club, STEAMhouse, Birmingham
- Sporadic Assemblage, ongoing collaboration with Steph Shipley, Birmingham/Lancaster
2019
- The Lionel Anthony Charitable Trust Award for Excellence in the Arts, London
- Slade Summer School Art Education Residency and Artists’ Talk, London
- Raw Materials: PLASTICS, Bow Arts, London
2018
- Merzbarn Residency, Lake District
- TFAC Residency, The Griffin Gallery, London
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Poem: “Bury My Songs”. To Stand on Shifting Ground, It’s Freezing in LA, London 2024
- Preview: Worcester Open Climate Change Exhibition, Slapmag. 13 January 2023
- My Life in Trees, Self-published, 2021
- SOLACE, zine project by Matthew Magill, September 2020
- Moseley B13 Magazine, issue #511, September 2020
- Exhibition | Monica Perez Vega: ‘To the Trees,’ Ruth Millington. 25 July 2020
- Average Art, Issue #44, March 2020
- Chic Chats #27: Monica Perez Vega, Lawfully Chic. 5 Aug. 2019
- Raw Materials: PLASTICS, May 2019
- WOTISART?, issue #11, Feb. 2018
- Novelty Magazine, issue #11, March 2018
- Fresh Paint Magazine, issue #9, Oct. 2015
For full CV, please inquire.