Manuel Monge

Born and raised in Lima, Peru, I was exposed from my early years not only to my father's architectural designs, but also to his watercolor paintings and other large pictures made with enamel and acrylics. I would sit at a small kids table next to my father's special architect desk, and while he was designing houses, I would be drawing or painting human figures, buildings, superheroes, and more. Years later, I experimented with surrealist drawings and pastel paintings of anthropomorphic creatures, mixing media and using highly saturated colors, taken from my love for Fauvism.
Upon entering college, I made the life-changing decision to major in Engineering. My dream of becoming an artist and live out of my art would have to wait. I spent the last twenty-five years working in Human Resources. This path, as unusual for an artist as it might be, allowed me to travel extensively and to live in five different countries in three different continents. I could learn about different cultures, languages, and explore these countries' unique artistic manifestations. I lived in major cities in South America, like Sao Paulo and Santiago de Chile, where I went to incredible art exhibitions, concerts, and recitals. I lived in Switzerland, where I had access to amazing museums and art galleries all over Western Europe. In 2013 I moved to the New York Metro area, where I enjoy the most incredible concentration of art ever imagined. In the summer of 2021 I started an MFA program at the Academy of Art University of San Francisco. My projected graduation is in the spring of 2025. My work is for now focused on my thesis, which consists in a series of paintings representing important urban landmarks in the counties of Morris and Union, in New Jersey.