William Monk Solo Exibition: Noon Day Night
Jun 30, 2026 at 11:00am ~ Aug 16, 2026 at 7:00pm
Pace will present Noon Day Night, an exhibition of paintings by William Monk, at its Tokyo gallery from June 30 – August 16. Marking the artist’s first solo show in Japan, Noon Day Night will feature new and recent works from Monk’s ongoing series exploring liminality and the metaphysical.
Drawing inspiration from an array of sources, including classic cinema and psychedelic rock, as well as lived experiences and images that accumulate in his subconscious, Monk paints compositions that occupy a surreal terrain of semi-abstraction. Evocative, vibrant, and often mysterious, his paintings are rooted in the rich art historical traditions of the medium. Monk frequently works in extensive series, developing and expanding upon his otherworldly forms with each new iteration. Repetition, he explains, “forces you to look for the variation. It’s like a fractal.”
This exhibition takes its title from the meteorological phenomenon by which the sky, during the middle of the day, darkens dramatically from severe storms, volcanic ash and other particulates, or solar eclipses, cultivating an atmosphere of strange timelessness. A sense of striking, illogical ambiguity cuts across the series included in the show, in which landscapes and architectural elements are neither totally real nor imagined. Holistically, they suggest what French anthropologist Marc Augé termed “non-place,” or an anthropological space where human relationships, histories, and identities are erased. Painted between 2021 and 2026 in London and New York, these works stem from a “non-place,” in a sense, even in their creation.
The psychologically charged nature of these works—enhanced by enigmatic, reoccurring forms such as colorful pillars, ethereal smoke rings, shadowy rock formations, and the uncanny figure of the sentinel, a guard or watcher of crossings and thresholds—speaks to the Celtic tradition of “thin places,” in which the boundaries between the corporeal and spiritual worlds become porous. In his process, Monk applies thin washes of color in layers, allowing them time to dry before adding to their chromatic complexity, to echo the heightened sense of awareness and perception inherent in “thin places.” Inviting viewers to slow down when encountering his works, he aims to open portals to uncharted realms of memory and the subconscious.
Closed on Mondays
Information
Start: Jun 30th 2026 at 11:00am
End: Aug 16th 2026 at 7:00pm
Pace Gallery
Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza A Minato-ku
