Pentti Monkkonen (b. 1975, US) is a Los Angeles-based artist. His artworks span from collections of NASA artefacts to relief sculptures replicating the side views of trucks. This latter series of paintings, titled Box Trucks, parodies the Californian food suppliers Worldwide Produce, enhancing a painterly critique of the current era of food commercialisation, which is rendered with anthropomorphic depictions of spray-painted vegetables on the vehicles.
Other trucks from Monkkonen’s work display an enigmatic branding, entirely or partially covered with graffiti tags, occasionally humorously hinting at the controversial characters inhabiting the contemporary art scene. Such fascination for trucks and freeways can be traced back to Monkkonen’s 1997 performance of the Herfhaf-Maahaf Ceremony, where a group of people acted out an ode to the freeway inspired by African rituals, parading in a procession which culminated in the installation of a Control Tower at the intersection of two roads. After this, Monkkonen realised a skull car prototype and a duo of Swan and Duck mini-motorbikes.
Monkkonen’s work has been exhibited all over the United States and in Europe, including Jonathan Viner Gallery, London, UK; Hacienda, Zurich, Germany; High Art, Paris, France; Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany; and APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia, Italy, in collaboration with Supportico Lopez, Berlin.
