NEW CANAAN, CONN.- Heather Gaudio Fine Art is presenting “Peter Monaghan: Fold” his first solo exhibition at the gallery. The show opened on November 21st and runs through January 9th.

In the early 2000s, the Irish artist made a conscious decision to pivot from his successful commercial graphic design company and turn his attention to developing the fine artist within. Although Monaghan had never fully stopped painting since his days at art school in Dublin, his new explorations with the medium took him away from the representational to abstraction. Gradually, the creative avenues led to adding three-dimensional components such as painted ping-pong balls, wooden sheets or dowels to his surfaces, allowing him to puzzle out his interest in color, form and light. This element of play with shapes and forms refined his abstraction and worked naturally with his design instincts, making for an original and authentic output of sculptural works that combine his fine art and graphics background. Monaghan has a keen understanding of the participatory nature of art, challenging the viewer to dynamically appreciate and experience the immediacy of color. The interactive nature of his wall-mounted works offers elements of surprise, with colors and forms vibrating and changing as the audience shifts positions.

Constantly probing his creative potential, Monaghan features a new body of work that germinated in a sketch book ten years ago. Created this year specifically for this exhibition, his geometric shapes are now folded over each other, the bends and overlapping forms allowing for new planes to generate color. For Monaghan, his work is about conveying emotion and energy through color without a narrative or figurative reference. The only literal form in the mix is a star, its points coyly collapsing in toward the center. The exhibition will also feature other kinetic forms / optical illusions Monaghan is known for, such as the highly sought-after colorful wooden dowels and interactive horizontal paintings.

Monaghan has enjoyed a successful artistic trajectory since changing his career two decades ago. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Europe, Asia and the United States, and has also worked on large-scale site-specific installations in Europe and the Middle East.