Monty Richthofen

Monty Richthofen writes prose poetry and aphoristic texts and gives them form through painting, text works in public space and tattooing. His words appear in a distinctive uppercase handwriting, letters tumbling together and lines struck through, in acrylic on canvas, charcoal on paper, acrylic on plexiglass lightboxes, steel and installations that combine light and sound. In the tattoo series #mywordsyourbody he inscribed his own lines on clients' bodies, gaining insight into their thoughts and fears around material desire, and later moved those inscriptions from the body to the canvas and the wall. The texts range from crude puns to personal vulnerability and social commentary, with recurring attention to materialism, luxury goods and the art object as a status symbol, a culture from which Richthofen does not exempt himself.