Jan 30, 2020 - November 18,2020 

Philadelphia artist Annette MJan 30, 2020 – Nov 6, 2020onnier has been making black and white drawings since the early 2000's. Her drawings illustrate what she says, “feature everything I like, I’m thinking about, or seems fun to draw.” Her stylized content is narrative and serves as a detailed visual diary that is an amalgam of Monnier’s happy thoughts. She describes her current subject matter as “imagining a party in a beautiful room in which all the people have suddenly been replaced by animals, not turned into animals, replaced, maybe swapped from one dimension to another.” 

In Monnier’s fantasy drawing, many of the “party-goers” have been replaced by cats—predominantly black cats—some by varying breeds of dogs, and a few turtles. The room is filled with details from the animals, furnishings, interior plants, to the views of the exterior landscape. There are very few areas without any marks, patterns, or solid black shapes.

It’s a curious depiction that all of the animals are looking at the viewer, as if they were just interrupted. Even the framed artwork—the skulls--and the birch trees in the background, the ceramic vessel on the window sill have eyes that look forward. Maybe, more than just the animals have been replaced?