TARO NASU

JONATHAN MONK AND SALVATORE MANGIONE

Active as a painter since the early 1960s, Italian artist Salvatore Mangione, known as Salvo, at one point made and sold inexpensive portraits, landscapes, and forgeries of works by famous artists to earn a living. British artist Jonathan Monk, on the other hand, has produced an ongoing series of works called Salvo Trees since 2016. In these works, Monk reproduces images of Salvo’s landscape paintings by inkjet printing them on blank A4 paper or atop fashion editorials, magazine advertisements, and furniture catalogues before covering their backgrounds with gouache and watercolor, leaving only the trees from the original composition. Further developing the use of appropriation in his practice, Monk focuses on the concept of repetition to shed light on Salvo’s artistic methods. In addition to new Salvo Trees works, this exhibition will also feature works by Salvo himself.