Claudia DeMonte (born 1947) is an American mixed media artist known for her exploration of "contemporary women’s roles" and world cultures through her eclectic sculptures, collages, digital prints, and installations. Her work is influenced by growing up Catholic and the lavish trappings and rituals of Catholicism. Other significant interests and themes in her work include outsider art, "globalism, identity politics, feminism, and social responsibility," which have been shaped by her world travels as much as her awareness of social issues.

Early life

Claudia DeMonte was born in 1947 in Astoria, New York. She was raised in an ethnically diverse neighborhood where she had a traditional Italian upbringing and strong Catholic education. Her father was an insurance broker and honorary mayor of Astoria before becoming a city councilman. DeMonte's mother, Ammeda Heiss DeMonte, was an assistant buyer and "Miss Hub" for the Hub department store in Baltimore before she married and moved to New York where she became a community activist and vice chair of Community Board One.

Education

DeMonte received her Bachelor of Arts in art history from College of Notre Dame of Maryland (in 1969 and her MFA from the Catholic University of America in 1971. During her time at university, DeMonte was influenced by art historian Ruth Watkins and textile artist Nell Sonnemann as both women were independent, well-traveled, tall, and had no children.

Personal life

DeMonte married Ed McGowin, a fellow artist, in 1977. She currently lives and works in New York City and Miami, Florida.

Career

DeMonte became interested in conceptual art early in her career and was so impacted by Art Povera that she wrote a letter to Germano Celant asking to study with him. While at college, she was expected to focus on creating traditional types of art. Instead she conceived interactive exhibits, in which she traded T-shirts with her name based on the Delmonte logo, hand-decorated photos of herself, and objects that she collected. Requiring audience participation in order to work, her trading shows proved highly successful with her exhibition at the Baltimore Museum breaking an "attendance record at the time." Her first major break came when she was included in Jane Livingston's Liberation: Fourteen American Women Artists show that toured in Europe and Five Plus One, in which DeMonte was the "Plus One" as she was the only non-painter in the show.

In 1976, DeMonte returned to "using [her] hands" and began to make dolls. Her work was always "autobiographical" and "personal" as it often dealt with her family and growing up. That same year, DeMonte moved back to New York with McGowin after coming to the realization that the art scene in Washington, D.C. was not held in the same high regard as politics and was often seen as less than or "secondary". As a New Yorker, she also missed the "excitement" and "anonymity" that the city provided. While she had made connections, garnering interest and support in her work from the likes of gallerist Ron Feldman and Doug Davis after her one-person show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, she struggled to gain a foothold in the New York art scene. There was a prevalent attitude that only New York museums and galleries carried any weight which DeMonte had not anticipated.

In 1977, returning to Queens, DeMonte rented a studio at P.S. 1 that furthered her connection with the New York art world. Her first significant press coverage came in the summer of 1980 after she had a reproduction in a group show. Determined to succeed in the New York art scene, she continued to take part in group shows that were often held at "alternative spaces". DeMonte's breakthrough finally came in 1983 after she joined Gracie Mansion’s successful new art gallery that was supportive of what she was trying to accomplish.

By the mid-1980s, the East Village art scene was flourishing and DeMonte was exhibiting her work nationally and internationally. During this time her artwork took on a new "universal" dimension while maintaining its deeply autobiographical qualities. This artistic development was facilitated by the extensive travel DeMonte undertook with McGowin. In a 1991 Smithsonian interview with Liza Kirwin, DeMonte stated that during the proceeding ten years, they had visited 50 countries and that a trip to the Deep South around 1985 furthered their interest in folk art and influenced her work and the materials she used.

DeMonte took on several notable projects in the 2000s. In 2000, she curated a collection of female artist works from 177 countries whose artwork depicted their personal understanding of what "woman" meant. Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art resulted in a 22-venue tour and a book published by Pomegranate. From 2000-2007, DeMonte's touring exhibition Real Beauty: A Celebration of Diversity and Global Culture, a collection of 140 traditional, handmade dolls by woman artists from around the world, explored the beauty standards and broader culture of each artist as well as the impact of globalism and mass-production on such objects.

Pomegranate released Claudia DeMonte in 2009 to accompany a retrospective tour of her work. The career monograph contained an essay by Eleanor Heartney, a contributing editor to Art in America and art press. The foreword was by president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund.

Teaching

DeMonte taught at the University of Maryland for 33 years. During her tenure, she was a recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award in 1997 and the Students Award for Excellence in Teaching. She was named professor emerita when she retired in 2004. From 1980 until 1990, DeMonte was also in charge of the Art Workshop program at the New School for Social Research.

Exhibitions

Claudia DeMonte has more than 100 solo and 500 group exhibitions. Her work is also held in numerous private, public, and corporate collections around the world.

Select solo exhibitions

2020 June Kelly Gallery, New York, N.Y. 2019 Binomial: Claudia DeMonte & Ed McGowin, Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL 2018 Memento Vivere: Sculpture and Installations, June Kelly Gallery, New York PARTNERS: Claudia DeMonte and Ed McGowin, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT Cape Cod Museum, Dennis, MA 2017 Celebrating 30 Years: Group Show Gallery Artists Drawings and Photographs, June Kelly Gallery, New York 2016 Memory Keepers: Sculpture and Installations, June Kelly Gallery, New York The Art of Making the Invisible Visible: A Retrospective by Claudia DeMonte, Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi, University MS 2014 Claudia DeMonte: La Forza del Destino, June Kelly Gallery, New York A Woman’s Work is Never Done, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT Claudia DeMonte, Cullis Wade Depot Art Gallery, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS 2012 Abundance: Sculpture/Installation, June Kelly Gallery, New York 2011 Claudia DeMonte: Retrospective, Cora Miller Gallery, York College of Pennsylvania Claudia DeMonte: Real Beauty, Cecille R. Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, MO Self and the Everywoman: Mixed Media Works by Claudia DeMonte, Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons College, Boston, MA CLAUDIA DEMONTE - OPERA di DONNA, Marsh Hall, University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art, Hattiesburg, MS 2010 Claudia DeMonte, Nordstrand Gallery, Wayne State University, Wayne, NE Mapping Beauty, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL Real Beauty, Katzen Center for the Arts, American University, Washington, DC Claudia DeMonte, Heffernan Gallery, West Valley Art Museum, Surprise, AZ Claudia DeMonte: Mapping Beauty, Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL The Luxury of Exercise: Small Sculpture and Works on Paper by Claudia DeMonte, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS 2009 Claudia DeMonte: The Luxury of Exercise, June Kelly Gallery, New York, monograph with an essay by Eleanor Heartney and foreword by Agnes Gund, published by Pomegranate Books, San Francisco, CA Claudia DeMonte and Ed McGowin, Jan Colle Gallery, Ghent, Belgium Claudia DeMonte: Retrospective, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT Everyday Matters, Flint Institute of Arts, MI 2008 Claudia DeMonte: Real Beauty, Kasser Family Exhibition, The Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York 2007 Empowered Objects: New Sculpture, June Kelly Gallery, New York Claudia DeMonte: Mapping Beauty, Holzhauer Gallery, Mattie Kelly Fine and Performing Arts Center, Okaloosa-Walton College, Niceville, FL Mapping Beauty: 3 decades of installations, Makan Gallery, Amman, Jordan 2006 A Couple of Litchfield County Artists, Silo Gallery, New Milford, CT Claudia DeMonte: A Silhouette, Selected Works, 1976–2005, University of Maryland, College Park, MD Claudia DeMonte, Women’s Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH 2005 Claudia DeMonte, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA Claudia DeMonte, Cole Pratt Gallery, New Orleans, LA 2004 Retrospective, Tallinn Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia Claudia DeMonte, Gerdunberg Cultural Center, Reykjavik, Iceland Personal Journeys, Salem College, Winston Salem, NC 2003 Female Fetishes, International Museum of Women, San Francisco, CA Claudia DeMonte, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL Claudia DeMonte, Brenau University, Gainesville, GA Claudia DeMonte, Cole Pratt Gallery, New Orleans, LA 2002 Female Fetishes, Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX 2001 Claudia DeMonte: New Work, Arguibel Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina Female Fetishes, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ Claudia DeMonte: Retrospective, Rosemont College, PA Female Fetishes, University of New England, Portland, ME The Queen’s Dream: Site Specific, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY 2000 Claudia DeMonte Female Implements, Flint Institute of Art, MI 1999 Female Fetishes, Gallery Liesbeth Lips, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 1998 Claudia DeMonte: Retrospective, Chokladfabriken, Malmo, Sweden Female Fetishes, Ambleside Gallery, Richmond, VA 1997 Female Fetishes, Genkan Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Female Implements, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Claudia DeMonte, Gateway Center, Prudential Plaza, Newark, NJ 1996 Domestique, Leedy Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, MO Female Implements: Serving Objects, Panorama Gallery, Winchester School of Art, Barcelona, Spain 1995 Housewives, Xochipilli Gallery, Birmingham, MI 1994 New Work, Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami, FL Significant Losses, The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Part, MD 1993 Female Fetishes, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY 1992 Objects of a Woman's Life, Jones/Troyer Fitzpatrick Gallery, Washington, DC 1991 Claudia DeMonte, Gallery 86, Lodz, Poland 1989 Claudia DeMonte/Ed McGowin, Falcon Gallery, Riyada, Saudi Arabia Shrines, Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York 1988 Amphora, Jones/Troyer Gallery, Washington, DC 1986 New Work: Two Installations, Xochipilli Gallery, Birmingham, MI Windows, Grey Art Gallery, New York University 1985 Claudia at Home & Abroad, Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York 1983 Russell Sage Gallery, Albany, NY 1982 Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria 1981 Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1980 Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS Fort Worth Museum, Fort Worth, Texas 1979 Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL 1978 Trade Piece, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans; Baltimore Museum of Art; Franklin Furnace, New York City, NY; American Cultural Center, Paris 1977 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Select group exhibitions

Un Incontro a Venezia, Archivo, Emily Harvey, Venice, Italy 50 Works from the Vogel Collection: Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii Portland Museum of Art Mississippi Museum of Art Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Las Vegas University of Michigan Art Museum, Ann Arbor Atrium Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri Markers 8: Mapping, Art life for the World Gallery, Venice, Italy Journee Internationale de la femme, UNESCO, Paris, France