Monia Lippi

The artist’s experiences with film and the theater lend a cinematographic element to her work, manifesting in a sense of latent tension and sophisticated compositional awareness. Lippi’s photographs display a keen interest in form and balance, which may be traced to her background in architecture.

Lippi employs large format film, a particularly photosensitive medium, allowing the depiction of subtle variations in light without digital manipulation or staging. This medium is also ideally suited to capturing intensely vivid color and detail. The long exposure time such film requires heightens the cinematic nature of the works, making each scene appear frozen in time. Eschewing digital manipulation, Lippi maintains total control of the artistic process through traditional darkroom techniques, hand-printing each photograph.

In 2005, the artist relocated to the United States. Lippi’s fascination with the urban environment and architecture of New York provided the inspiration for several new projects. The resulting series investigate human presences in the city, both visible and latent, through varying themes: nightscapes, deserted vehicles, industrial views, figures in landscapes, and doors.

Lippi has participated in numerous group shows in including a recent exhibition at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery (University of Minnesota), in conjunction with the Walker Art Center. The artist has collaborated with Nike to create several video art installations. Monia Lippi’s work is held in private collections throughout Italy, Paris, Lebanon, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami.