Ardele Monk is a multidisciplinary artist who is passionate about exploring the unusual, the cute, and the uncanny. Her work revolves around the themes of personal taste, humor, sadness, and the obscure. She draws inspiration from visionary worlds, history, pop culture, cinema, and domestic adornment when creating the objects and environments that she designs.

 

Ardele was born and raised in Washington, DC, and currently resides and works in Detroit, MI. She holds an MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and a BFA in Fine Art from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. In 2023, she was selected as a resident at Benton Projects in Benton, Wisconsin, and in 2021, she was a finalist at The Detroit Artists Market Annual Scholarship Show. Ardele's work has been written about in The Detroit News and Runner Magazine. She is a member of the Surface Design Association, Detroit Fiber Club, and the Detroit Theater Organ Society/Senate Theater. She is also the co-founder of Mouse: a gallery, an experimental basement art space in Detroit, MI.

 

Ardele's creative process involves a blend of diverse interests and the use of various materials and processes. She creates physical objects, videos, installations, and wall hangings by combining found objects with new materials, resulting in unique yet familiar creations. This fusion of materials and mediums enables the creation of immersive worlds, evoking objects and environments from both the past and the future.

 

Ardele embraces a versatile approach to her work, free from the constraints of a single material or process. Instead, she explores multiple outcomes and compositions through creative experimentation. She enjoys exploring the interplay of the absurd, the magical, and the grotesque. Her art is the convergence of these three elements, offering an entry to imaginative realms.

 

Finally, Ardele dedicates her work to the loving memory of Gerold P Washington II (1982-2019).