Les temps modernes, 2023

Nicolas Monjo   Emerging artists

Born in Lot et Garonne in 1975, Nicolas Monjo is a talented self-taught painter who today lives and works near Angouleme. Preferring the solitude of his studio to social events, he often leaves it to others to dissect and decipher his works.

He discovered painting at the age of 20 and from then on has worked to developed a unique, highly poetic style. He plays with the laws of chemistry on his canvases, mixing acrylics and oils to create pronounced reliefs, whilst his signature preference for greys and blues makes his works instantly recognisable.   

The themes tackled by the artists reveal a lucid and personal vision of his subjects, usually everyday objects and scenes which recur as frequently on his canvases as they do in day to day life. Monjo reveals touches of himself through his paintings, depicting his experiences of living in a hard, cold world where the laws of the jungle prevail. He strives, and achieves with brilliance, to make the viewer aware of the fragility of the human condition, which seems to haunt his subjects. The men and women are figuratively and literally enclosed in the frame, reminding the spectator of their inability to liberate themselves from their mundane lives. 

Sometimes resembling the curvaceous figures found in the works of Fernand Léger, the characters in Monjo's pieces are often accompanied by dogs, cats, even fish, and are depicted in strange, contorted positions. His preference for flexible models allowed ten people at once to squeeze themselves into a tiny car for one memorable piece. 

Monjo's latest works are fantastical, almost surrealist in nature, but contain many of his traditional motifs likes hearts and guitars, as well as bottles, plates, forks, and abandoned glasses. Objects which grace the everyday life of the artist are captured and presented for the delight of the spectator. 

Nicolas Monjo maintains a regular presence in galleries and exhibitions in France. In 2024, he was featured in the group exhibition Existential Pluralism at Galerie Bouillon d’Art in Bordeaux, as well as in a duo exhibition at Espace Orlando in the Gers alongside Carole Petit, highlighting his dense and narrative figurative universe. More recently, his work has also been shown in 2026 at Galerie 2023 in Lons-le-Saunier, as part of a group exhibition bringing together several contemporary artists, confirming the continuity of his presence in the current art scene and his anchoring within the French gallery circuit.