Born in Eureka, California, 1972. Lives and works in Los Angeles
Scoria Pyre, 2012, patinated bronze and stainless steel

Matthew Monahan’s work presents a sort of futurist archeology that combines painting with additional materials and bespeaks a variety of influences, ranging from modern art to ancient totems, ritual objects, and artifacts associates with esoteric cultures and popular culture. Monahan alludes to a contemporary form of spiritualism that brings together beauty and ugliness, cruelty and delicacy.
He does not view himself as a sculptor, but rather as the creator of images and objects based on drawings. Many of his works include both two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, and their imagery has an intentionally primitive, crude, iconic character associated with mysticism, ritual, and the occult.