Monique Rollins creates visual experiences that place the viewer in vibrant and enduring habitats. Her work stems from her interest in human emotion, allusions to place, memory, and the ubiquitously fleeting moments of the conscious and unconscious. Rollins creates spirited juxtapositions of line, shape, and color. Her canvases teem with the vibrancy of captivating surface textures referencing the zone of activity between fleeting ideas of something or somewhere.

Her large-scale expressive works belie the radical intimacy of her work. Forms lead to outcroppings of line; intervals of ingenious dilemmas between shapes lead the eye deeper into the picture plane, as strong vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions of the formal elements underscore the unifying factors in her artistic statement. Rollins’ work makes the case for the way art and its language of color, line, and shape enrich a viewer’s experience of the work and ultimately the world. Rollins’ distinctly improvisational process pulsates with exuberance while maintaining a meditative quality particularly in areas of untouched canvas. By examining both the spirit and energy of creative exploration in pure abstract design, her work pushes toward a deeper vision that releases the secret to Rollins’ unbridled energy: a command of the materials at hand.



Artist bio

Monique Rollins (b. 1980, American) is a contemporary painter inspired by the colors of the Venetian renaissance and the contemporary Italian cityscape. Rollins’ portfolio consists of oil paintings, acrylic paintings, charcoal drawings and paper collage paintings on canvas incorporating a number of mediums including pencil, acrylic, watercolor, and pen and ink. Each painting visually documents her journeys and experiences, her interest in human emotion, allusions to place, memory, and fleeting moments of the conscious and unconscious.

Rollins received her BFA from Syracuse University in New York in 2002. In 2006, she earned an MFA in painting, a Master of Science in Theory, Criticism and History of Art degree specializing in Venetian Renaissance, and a Museum Studies Certification from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Rollins’ work has been exhibited at Kyro Art Gallery in Pietra Santa, Italy; Metroquadro Miami Gallery; Delaware College of Art and Design; Gallery Onue in Seoul Korea; Gallery 83 in Kyiv, Ukraine; group shows at Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston, TX; the Dante Alighieri Society in Venice, Italy; the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Paris, France; Metroquadro Gallery in Turin, Italy; the Dante Alighieri Society in Venice, Italy; the Zhu Naizheng Research Center for Art in Beijing and also the American Center, in Beijing, China; The Delaware Contemporary Museum in Wilmington, Delaware; the Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine; Andre Zarre Gallery in New York City; Art Miami Context 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013 editions; the American Embassy in Rome’s Tri Mission Art Gallery; Art Central Hong Kong; Denise Bibro Gallery in New York City; the County Offices of the City of Wilmington and many public sites throughout the city of Wilmington, Delaware, her home town; the Official Residence of the Ambassador to the European Union in Kingston, Jamaica, as well as in the in many prominent private collections in North America, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.