Untitled (Orange Moon), 2014

‘Untitled (Orange Moon)’ is William Monk’s (1977, United Kingdom) psychedelic homage to landscape painting, nature, the heavens and to color itself - which he uses masterfully and to riveting effect. The viewer’s eye is drawn through a multi-colored field - of grain perhaps - towards a (not only orange-colored) glowing moon. The pointillist-like style in which the field is rendered and Monk’s use of contrasting enhancing colors speak to his engagement with the painterly tradition of the avant-garde – most notably Van Gogh, who referred to orange as “the color of insanity” - and their experiments with color theory. However, Monk is not so easily categorized. “I camouflage the content of my paintings,” he says. “I want to be cryptic.” Cryptic as he may be, Monk’s work is mesmerizingly beautiful and infinitely strange.