Pratt in Venice alumna Monique Rollins (PiV ‘06) sits in front of an acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 2017, located at the official residence of the ambassador to the European Union, Kingston (Photo: Angie Gray).
Pratt in Venice alumna Monique Rollins (PiV ‘06) was interviewed in Delaware Today, speaking about her evolutionary collection of contemporary abstract works..
Today, her series of works— comprising vibrant oil paintings, monochromatic charcoal drawings and collages, mostly large in scale—are on display downtown at the Chase Center on the Riverfront and the Hercules and Brandywine buildings, among other notable spaces. She’s also exhibited at The Delaware Contemporary and DCAD as recently as last winter, and her body of work has also traveled to Miami’s prestigious Art Basel, and as far as Africa and Asia.
Born in 1980 in Wilmington Delaware, Monique Rollins received a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree from Syracuse University in New York in 2002. In 2006, Monique earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting, a Master of Science in Theory, Criticism and History of Art degree, specializing in Venetian Renaissance, and a Museum Studies Certification from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.
Monique's paintings have been exhibited Internationally for over a decade. In 2018, Monique has had solo exhibitions at Metroquadro Gallery in Turin, Italy, the Dante Alighieri Society in Venice, Italy, earlier in the year, the Delaware Contemporary Museum traveled her exhibition, Eastern Poesia to China to the Zhu Naizheng Research Center for Art in Beijing and also the American Center, in Beijing, China. Rollins has had solo exhibitions at the Delaware Contemporary Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, the Shevchenko National Museum in Kiev, Ukraine, Andre Zarre Gallery in New York City, Art Miami Context 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 editions, the American Embassy in Rome’s Tri Mission Art Gallery, a solo exhibition at Art Central Hong Kong, Denise Bibro Gallery in New York City, to name only a few. Her work can be viewed in the County Offices of the City of Wilmington, and many public sites throughout the city of Wilmington, Delaware, her home town. Her paintings are also on display in the Official Residence of the Ambassador to the European Union in Kingston, Jamaica as well as in the in many prominent private collections in North America, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. Currently Monique's artworks are on exhibition at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Paris, France. Monique's larger collage paintings will be in the exhibition Infinite Jest, in Venice, Italy. The exhibition will open in May as part of Pratt Institute's Pratt in Venice 35th Anniversary celebration. Monique's large oil paintings will be on display in June at Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston, Texas. Monique will have exhibitions in Kiev, Ukraine, Seoul, Korea and Miami, Florida later in the year.
The interview appeared in the March 4, 2021 edition of Delaware Today. The full interview can be read here.
