Monique Allain

STATEMENT
I am an ART(IV)IST. I adopted this term years ago, when I realized that artists should never lose the poetics in our artistic voice, even while advocating and being engaged with what we believe is part of our responsibility. My practice is guided by a commitment to life, peace, and environmental sustainability. Family diaspora led me to seek an understanding of identity formation and the construction of self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is not a personal matter, but a universal necessity: an attempt to give meaning to existence. I have questioned since childhood what promotes its development, in both its individual and collective nature. Today I understand that MEMORY and CONNECTIONS are fundamental axes: with our place in space and time, with the other, and especially with the self. I produce performances, actions, installations and interventions that offer situations of connection with the environment (grounding experiences and habitation); with others (dialogues); and immersive situations of self-connection. As I multimedia artist, I work with video, photography, print, mixed media and painting, exploring the synesthetic potential at the limits, transitions and overlays of those diverse medias. Lygia Clark in her search for the “Structuring of the Self”, and Moshe Feldenkrais with his Awareness Through Movement method, are prime references. Biology, my first training, is an inspiring source in terms of thematic and creative process.

BIOGRAPHY
Monique Allain is a multidisciplinary, multimedia artist with B.A. degrees in Biology and in Visual Arts, and a M.A. in Visual Arts. Born in São Paulo in 1958 to French/Mexican parents, she moved to the U.S. in 2018, settled in North Salem, NY in 2020, and relocated to Waccabuc, NY in 2025. Before engaging the art field, Allain worked as an environmental consultant for Terra Capital Fund, the first investment fund in the world focused on biodiversity preservation. In 1999 she redirected her carrier to art. To understand the contemporary art scene and the mechanisms of the artist’s profession, she worked from 2000 to 2002 as Assistant Cultural Manager at Casa das Rosas, a public contemporary art center in São Paulo. With a group of artists committed to promoting Brazilian art and strengthening artists’ participation in cultural decision-making, she co-founded Cooperativa de Artistas Visuais do Brasil (2003-2006). In 2005-2006 she joined artists Dácio Bicudo and Ivald Granato to create CEL1121, a space for artistic actions. After completing her B.A. in Visual Arts in 2007, she was awarded a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2008) and received her M.A. in Visual Arts (2011). Drawn to the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, Allain completed training and was certified by the International Feldenkrais Foundation (2015), integrating the method in her artistic process. Invited by ABER – Associação Brasileira de Encadernação e Restauro, she founded and coordinated the “Núcleo de Arte” of ABER, developing study programs and producing artist’s books. In 2023, with Estela Vilela and Chica Boyriven, she conceived and developed M.A.L.A. – Morada Andarilha dos Livros de Artista / SUITCASE – Wandering Home of Artist’s Books, an annual artist’s book residency project where she now serves as advisor. From October 2024 to September 2025, Allain conceived and coordinated ART FOR A CHANGE, a year-long nonprofit project with breast cancer patients at Metropolitan Hospital in NYC. Monique Allain’s work has been exhibited in in museums, galleries, and public spaces globally. Her pieces are in the permanent collections of MAB, Espaço Cultural dos Correios, Palácio 9 de Julho, and Benetton Foundation.