About

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Artist Statement

Annette has been drawing black and white little worlds since the early 2000s in an attempt to simplify her life and art practice. In the drawings are everything she likes, or is thinking about, or seems fun to draw. The more details the better. Her current favorite subject matter is imagining a party in a beautiful room in which all the people have suddenly been replaced by animals, not turned into animals, replaced, maybe swapped from one dimension to another. 

Annette Monnier is a creative professional, artist, arts administrator, and art writer. She is currently the Executive Director of a non-profit art center in West Philadelphia called the University City Arts League (most people just say UCAL) and a member of the board of theartblog.org. She has been a member of the management team for the alternative arts space PRACTICE, which focuses on performance, experimental, social, and contextual practices in artwork and has been a founding curatorial member of the art spaces Black Floor and Copy Gallery. An accomplished writer for several blogs and printed materials, she has also written a monthly art column for the now defunct Philadelphia CityPaper. She trained to be an artist by drawing for long hours shut up in her room as a child drawing the same cartoon dog over and over again. Later she went to art school (The Art Academy of Cincinnati, Ohio) and earned a BFA. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has no pets. 

Notes on the pictures of drawings on this site

For years Annette has been terrible at documenting her work. Many drawings have been made that she took no pictures of, or took pictures of that were so bad that they might as well have not been taken. This website is part of a vow to be better about this in the future. Below, mostly for her own note-keeping, is a list of drawings that have not been recorded. Since they have been made they have been either bought by other people, donated to charity auctions, or destroyed by the artist herself in a fit of rage or cleaning. 

  1. Black Floor Gallery, made in 2005, 2006, or 2007? A drawing of everything that ever happened there, all at once. 

  2. A drawing of the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), maybe some people were stealing a Calder, maybe 2006. 

  3. A drawing of a dinosaur (T-Rex) on top of the PMA, in a lightning storm of course, maybe 2006. Destroyed in an experiment.

  4. Can’t remember the title, from a 2007? show at Padlock Gallery, which was in a living room in South Philly, a drawing of a really full NYC subway car.  Maybe called “Really Full Subway Car”?

  5. Also can’t remember the title, from that same show, a drawing of my name, had some color on it I think, snakes also. Maybe called “Annette Monnier”?

  6. Dial 481, from the same 2007 exhibition, the title refers to a drug described in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the drawing is of a funeral. 

  7. A drawing of a ghost bike in the rain, a girl in a hoodie was crossing the street, maybe 2007. 

  8. A drawing of a bunch of junk in a grassy field, maybe 2007. Inspired by my colleague at an after-school program throwing all her McDonald’s on the ground.

  9. An extremely large drawing (maybe as long as 10 feet?) with Philadelphia’s City Hall as a central theme--maybe called something about the pursuit of happiness? Pokemon, Kiera Knightly (at least 10 of her), giant robot, many other things. Came with a soundtrack by Gerik Forston. 2009 or 2010. 

  10. The Dogs and Ecuador, 2013, inspired by a trip to Ecuador and all the lovely street dogs there. 

  11. A drawing inspired by Ecuadorian artist, Gonzalo Endara Crow, a seascape, I think. Maybe dogs. Maybe I dreamed it. 2013.

  12. A drawing of the six wives of Henry the 8th, riding Utah Raptors, through a rose garden. 2014.

  13. Sharknado at the Fox Wedding, 2015, pseudo-inspired by the Omni Mt. Washington Resort in New Hampshire, a fox wedding on the porch there is disrupted by a sharknado. 

  14.  Window Kitties, inspired by the photographic works and observations of Mackenzie McAlpin, a row of row homes has a cat in every window. This work has two versions, one was a commission from someone who saw the first. 2015-ish. 

  15.  Commission from my father, 2015 or 16, work from a photograph.

  16. Commission from my mother, 2015 or 16, her and all her sisters, on the beach with a whale, butterflies (for my grandmother).

  17. Commission from my friend Cita, 2015 or 16, her property by the river, with dogs.

  18. Portal Cat, 2015, 16, a cat steps into another dimension, obviously inspired by His Dark Materials. Was meant to be part of a zine. 

  19. Information is Our Home, 2016, mice live in the large flower arrangement at the information desk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At night they collect food and bring it back to their home. 

  20. A drawing of a long dinner party with witches and bears and foxes and cats, in the woods, at night. 2017.