John Monteith
(American, b. 1966)
No. 120, 1997
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 138 (Co Despondency Group), 1998
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 101 (Allen University 1967), 1998
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 42, 1997
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 57, 1996
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 96 (Charlotte H.S. 1959), 1997
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 143 (Blithe Negligence Group), 1998
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
No. 94 (Charlotte H.S. 1952), 1997
Collage
Courtesy of the Artist
John Monteith’s college yearbook portrait pages are a reminder of a major ritual of portraiture: the high school yearbook and the headshot upon headshot of classmates. In his collages of yearbook pages, he upends the banality by altering each image. In describing the origin of the project, Monteith cites the material appeal of the yearbook pages and his "fascination with the institutional/formal theater of the yearbook pictures as well…The pieces focused on the attempt to conjure some sort of entropic irreality. Sort of like a parallel, mirror image theater betraying a barely concealed absurdist dystopia.”
Biography
Monteith is a self-taught artist from New Jersey. His work has been seen in solo exhibitions at such venues as the Tapps Art Center in Columbia, SC; the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts in Woodstock, NY; SOMA NewArt Gallery in Cape May, NJ; Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC; and, in 2000, at the Edward M. Smith Gallery at Davidson College. His work has also appeared in group exhibitions around the US and abroad at the Maison de Lyon, France; the Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; and Stephen Romano Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, among other venues. Monteith has been featured in articles and photography publications, notably appearing in Mountain Xpress newspaper and New York Magazine in recent years. He currently lives in Columbia, SC.