Monika Kus-Picco

Irene Gludowacz, Herbert Brandl

"Monika Kus-Picco (b. Vienna, 1973; lives and works in Vienna and Rio de Janeiro) has devised an artistic practice in painting and photography that charts the outer bounds and perceptions of consciousness. For her large-format pictures -- she calls them color drug paintings -- the artist works with products of the pharmaceutical industry to create vivid visual experiences of these substances. She needs no pencil or brush to develop her motifs: each work begins with an experimental arrangement that involves a primed support medium. The key factor shaping Kus-Picco's color drug paintings is the choice of medications, from which she extracts the ingredients for her colors. Antiseptic, Neuron, Overdose, or, more familiarly, Toothache and Family Pack are among the titles she has given to the works in this series. The powerful allure with which they draw in the beholder is enhanced by the...