Monster

M. David & Co. @ Art Cake
Friday / Saturday, 1 - 6 pm and by appointment

March 7 – March 29, 2025
214 40th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232

Opening Reception:
March 7, 2025, 6-9pm

M. David & Co. is pleased to present Monster, a group exhibition of works by Amelia Biewald, S. Klitgaard, Helen O’Leary, Gret Sterret Smith, and Kyle Staver.

Featuring a range of paintings, drawings, and sculptures in various media, Monster pertains to notions of monsters, monstrosities, and monstrousness. Some of these notions are readily apparent in the artists’ works. Some are less than overt. With monsters in the mix, nothing is inert. 

Be Aware: Monster
by Paul D’Agostino 

Monsters are everywhere. All the time. Bad monsters and good monsters. Big monsters and small monsters. Real monsters and metaphorical monsters. Monsters we see, monsters out of sight. Monsters we hear, feel, dream, or otherwise sense. Monsters are right there somewhere if we look around, listen close, and pay attention. 

Monsters are in the movies and on television. They’re in news headlines and on news broadcasts. Some monsters battle other monsters. Some monsters report on other monsters. There are greater and lesser monsters. Monsters in attics. Monsters in toy chests. Skeletons in closets often serve as concealed stand-ins for monsters hidden in our minds. Some monsters are horrific. Some are relatable. Some monsters incite anxiety, fear, and loathing. Some just want to be friends. 

Deep traditions exist and are compounded over time of monsters and monstrosities of manifold forms, and of manifold sorts, and these monsters represent all manner of things and take on various roles. Some monsters of lore symbolize or embody awful terrors, but not all of them are so horrendous. Some assume different characteristics according to shifting contexts. Some monsters conjure primordial fears from immemorial pasts. Some unleash freshly fearsome hells of the immediate present. Some are harbingers of things to come. Some monsters might even stir within us, disturbing our consciousness, waiting for us to succumb. 

So monsters are everywhere, within and without. And they might not all be invariably bad. In a most fundamental, etymological sense, monsters are manifestations or beings that ‘show themselves’ in one way or another – lurking or haunting, rumbling or roaring, prowling or pouncing – so as to warn or admonish, caution or instruct, remind or raise alarm, foretell or portend. A monstrous being might appear as unnerving or frightening, or ominous or evil, but the essential message it seeks to convey is perhaps more curiously mysterious: ‘I am here. See me. Be aware.’ If the ultimate effect of encountering a monster is to make us stay away from something perilous, or to remind us to better shield ourselves from dangers all around or dangers to come, then perhaps we’re better off encountering that monster and heeding its warning as opposed to carrying on unawares. On that note, when’s the last time you checked under your bed?

For the five artists in Monster – Helen O’Leary, S. Klitgaard, Kyle Staver, Amelia Biewald, and Gret Sterret Smith – monsters pertain to all of the above and then some, and they inform and find expression in their paintings, drawings, and sculptures in a range of media in various ways, and not necessarily conspicuously or literally. Through their artworks selected for this show, the artists in Monster suggest, point to, give physical form to, define, and redefine all manner of monsters and monstrosities. And as you can read here, the artists do so in their own words as well. Like their artworks pertaining to monsters, the artists’ definitions of ‘monster’ indicate various visions, interpretations, contours, and understandings – all intended to invite further dialogue and spark deeper conversations. 

And so, after you read the artists’ takes on the show’s theme, take a moment to reflect on what ‘monster’ means to you. If you need to conjure a monster while doing so, just look around, listen close, pay attention. Keep cave. Stay quick. Be aware. 

– Paul D’Agostino, Ph.D. is an artist, writer, educator, curator, and translator.

Monster artists Helen O’Leary, S. Klitgaard, Kyle Staver, Amelia Biewald, and Gret Sterret Smith responding to the prompt: What does the word ‘monster’ mean or suggest for you? How might monsters find form in your work?

Helen O’Leary
I am working with the myth of the Cailleach, the hag of Beara, an Irish force of a woman. Neither good nor evil, she is fierce and wild as she shapes, breaks, and recreates landscapes and affects weather. She is feared and revered across Celtic cultures. She looks after animals, shelters goats, and is the patron saint of wolves. Rocks fall from her gathered apron as she legs over mountains, one-eyed, pale, aging. I absolutely love her.  

S. Klitgaard
Monsters are constantly changing in their symbology while sticking true to their mythology. They are built out of our fears and failures, and are also blamed for them.

Kyle Staver
Monsters are made up of the stuff I’m most frightened of. They are vague in description, which gives them easier access to those unnameable corners of dread lurking inside me. I should also mention they prefer the dark. 

Amelia Biewald
A monster to me represents something that is universal, but hard to explain verbally. It’s something that elicits a sort of primal reaction, a scratch at your psyche, usually mild, occasionally causing a fight or flight response. For me it’s usually visual, something I can witness and that confronts me and sparks reaction, but it can also be felt through words, like an ominous warning about the future. A monster is not really any one thing. It’s a collective ancient darkness that is timeless. An eerie nervousness or anxiety.

Gret Sterret Smith
Monstrous beauty: an umbilical adjective sustains a vital yet overused noun. This monstrous pair is inclusively rich with beautiful beasts, comic prodigies of excess, and the sublime grotesque. Honest, weird one-offs breathe free and fearless, a sympathetic portent and offering for our time.