November 2024
Monique Allain (1958) is an artist, educator and researcher, born in São Paulo to French/Mexican parents. She moved to NY in 2018 and settled in North Salem NY in 2020.
Before engaging in the art field, she was an environmental consultant for the “Terra Capital Fund”, the first fund in the world to capitalize on business projects aimed at preserving biodiversity.
However, something was missing. In 1999 Allain redirected her carrier and took on her profession as an artist. Guided by the purpose of understanding the contemporary art scene and the mechanisms that act in the artist's profession, she worked from 2000 to 2002 as Assistant Cultural Manager at Casa das Rosas, a contemporary public art center in São Paulo.
Sharing the desire to accentuate the participation of visual artists in the processes of cultural decisions and expansion of the recognition and diffusion of visual art developed in Brazil, along with a group of artists, she created the Cooperativa de Artistas Visuais do Brasil (2003-2006).
In 2004, with the view to deepen and structure knowledge in the art field, and to maturate a personal language, Allain went back to university to study Visual Arts. In 2005-2006 she joined the artists Dácio Bicudo and Ivald Granato to create the “CEL1121”, a space for artistic actions. After completing a bachelor's degree in visual arts (2007), she was awarded a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, 2008) and received a master’s degree in visual arts (2011).
Discovering a high resonance with the thoughts of Moshe Feldenkrais and interested in improving her process through the method he created, Allain completed the training and was certified by The International Feldenkrais Foundation (2015).
Invited by ABER (Associação Brasileira de Encadernação e Restauro) to create and coordinate the art division “NÚCLEO DE ARTE”, in 2013 she developed multiple programs which promoted the study and production of artist's books, as a study group for artists, an Artist Book course, and the Vitrine Project. The experience expanded her interest in printed art and enabled rich exchanges with other artists. These programs allowed the practice and the maturation of a pedagogical project that involved conception, construction, and presentation of artworks. In the Vitrine Project, four annual exhibitions of printed art showcased the work of consolidated artists (2013-2019).
In 2017 Allain was approved and participated in the Program and Group of Contemporary Art and Production Studies (which focus on the deconstruction of certainties, experimentation and deepening of the creative processes) led by the curator Paulo Miyada at the Tomie Ohtake Institute.
In a joint effort with the artists Estela Vilela (coordinator), Lilian Pardini and Chica Boyriven, she conceived and developed the annual artist's book residency project M.A.L.A. - Morada Andarilha dos Livros de Artista (SUITCASE - Wandering Home of Artist’s Books). The first year of the project (2024) culminated with an exhibition at the cultural center El Rule, Mexico City, and an exhibition at Galeria Página in São Paulo.
In October 2024, Allain started the one-year nonprofit volunteer ART FOR A CHANGE project with the breast cancer patients from the Metropolitan Hospital in NYC.
Monique Allain’s work has been presented in one-person and collective exhibitions, in museums, galleries and public spaces in Brazil and abroad. It is included in the permanent collections of the following institutions: MAB, Espaço Cultural dos Correios, Palácio 9 de Julho, and Benetton Foundation.
