"Akim Monet is a true visionary in more ways than one." Andres Serrano, artist "Part of the beauty and intensity of Akim Monet’s photographs has to do with the convergence of opposites, of past and present. They stand sublimely poised in the space between." Hilarie M. Sheets, writer for Artnews Magazine, The New York Times, and Art+Auction "Fascinated by the moment captured by the opening and closing of the shutter – creating what the artist calls the "burn" of the image – Monet’s photographs conjure a mystery and beauty akin to alchemy." Liz Christensen, curator, Deutsche Bank Fine Art Program "In his works, Monet succeeds in establishing, through careful treatment of light and luminescence, and delicate handling of image and icon, his own personal dialogue within contemporary art." Dr. Ariane Grigoteit, curator Deutsche Bank Collection "Pour Akim Monet, les négatifs retiennent la vraie marque du magique de l’instant. Trace de l’immédiat dans un rapport sensoriel, à travers laquelle Akim ressent toute l’énergie de l’univers." Claire Rafenne, éditrice Trajectoires magazine EXCERPT FROM THE PERGAMON CATALOGUE ESSAY BY Hilarie M. Sheets To look at Akim Monet's photographs of Greek sculptures is to experience these familiar objects of near perfection in an unexpected light. Cropped from the context of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and delivered to a pictorial world of lush blue tonalities, these stone gods and humans enacting their timeless postures take on a taut psychological currency. Monet's signature process of printing directly what is on his negatives rather than inverting them into positive images is what gives all his photographs their saturated, heightened palette. In the "Pergamon" series, his technique renders hard, cold stone fluid and aqueous. Whether by highlighting elements of abstraction or teasing out moments of human drama, Monet's images bring into relief a contemporary relevancy he finds in these classical sculptures. The idea of duality plays out even in the presentation of these Ilfochrome prints, which are two dimensional but assume the heft of stone under their boxlike lamination of thick polished Plexiglas, a nod to minimalist sculpture. In a subtle dialogue among mediums, Monet approaches his three-dimensional subjects from a painterly sensibility and returns the traces of light stolen with his camera back to the object world. An American Citizen, Monet was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1968. He studied comparative literature at Cornell University in New York State. He now lives and works between New York City and Umbria, Italy.