Monica Rohan – Mind How You Go

‘Mind how you go’ is Monica Rohan’s fifth solo exhibition at Jan Murphy Gallery. This collection of paintings is equally inspired by familiar interior spaces and the possibilities of the wide unknown. Embracing the traditional notion of negative space as a compositional device, like that found between the limbs akimbo of a tree, Rohan creates mysterious portals within the landscape. Rohan creates mysterious portals within the landscape. By contrast, there is a sense of vertigo in the highly patterned interior spaces, many of which were painted during the 2020 pandemic.

“The title for this show, Mind how you go, expresses an awareness of one’s self and one’s environment. The pandemic made me particularly mindful of my relationship to my surroundings, through both the restrictions placed on movement and the need to be conscious of our interactions with others.” Monica Rohan, 2021

Monica Rohan has been a finalist in numerous major prizes, including the Archibald Prize (2020 and 2016), the Dobell Drawing Prize (2019), Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2018) and the Sulman Prize (2017). In 2015, Rohan was curated into a significant survey show of Queensland artists, Goma Q at QAGOMA. Her work is held in a number of private and public collections, including Artbank, University of Queensland Art Museum, QAGOMA, Museum of Brisbane, Tweed Regional Gallery and the Griffith University Art Museum.