The Art World Thinks Alec Monopoly Is a Joke—But He’s Laughing All the Way to the Bank

Alec Monopoly is the most
successful artist that art-world insiders don’t take
seriously.

Mentioning street art—and
Monopoly in particular—in certain circles will earn you a haughty
sneer at best. As the now-defunct website Gawker once put it, Monopoly’s success is
built off of selling “dumb art to foolish people for large
sums.” 

And yet: Monopoly was the
seventh most-searched artist in artnet’s Price Database last year,
has more than a million Instagram followers, and counts celebrities
including Miley Cyrus and Snoop Dogg among his collectors.
Online, the 32-year-old shares
snaps of himself with his face covered (to protect his anonymity
from law enforcement unhappy with his graffiti, he says) as he
enjoys a high-end LA lifestyle ostensibly bankrolled by his art
career. 

He is among 100 artists who have
seen the biggest gain in interested users on the artnet Price Database
since 2005, coming in at number 79—ahead of Anish Kapoor (#80),
Agnes Martin (#85), Ugo Rondinone (#86), and even Jeff Koons (#87).
This summer, his gallery, Eden Fine Art, bankrolled a new body of
work complete with an enormous inflatable Mr. Monopoly figure
floating off the coast of Mykonos. 

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But while artists like KAWS and JR have enjoyed a spike in institutional interest
and mainstream market
support in recent years, Monopoly continues to operate
largely outside the cloistered art world. He has just one museum show to his name, at
MOCA Bangkok in 2015. His resale market also remains relatively
modest, with a record of $20,000 set in July. (His works are listed
for as much as $45,000 on ArtLife, an online gallery and “lifestyle
brand” run by his brother and manager, Avery
Andon.) 

But Monopoly says the public
beyond the insular art world is the audience that most excites him.
“People that follow me are invited to my world and become a part of
my art, my statement,” he tells artnet News.

Richie Rich

As always when it comes to
making money, it helps if you already have some. Monopoly was born
in New York to a well-off family, including a mother who was a
classically trained painter, so “art and painting was always in my life,” he
says.

As a teenager, Monopoly dabbled
in skateboarding and graffiti, and went on to double major in art
and business in college before dropping out. He was making graffiti
outside alongside art in the studio, but he says he didn’t really
connect the two until 2008. The same year the stock market crashed,
the Great Recession began, and the one percent experienced a
worldwide reckoning, Monopoly found his brand—and his new name.
(His real name is a badly kept secret.)

He began depicting
the recognizable figure
of Mr. Monopoly, which resonated with people as an apt metaphor for
corporate greed and a stand-in for Wall Street scammers like Bernie
Madoff. He presented the figure alongside other Pop characters
brandishing bags of cash, including Scrooge McDuck, Richie Rich,
and the Simpsons’s Mr. Burns. 

Today, Monopoly mainly works on
commission, which he acknowledges is unusual for a street artist.
“This is one of the keys to
making my work more respectable,” he says. “I don’t want to see
someone the next day with a water gun removing my hard work.” He
has also continued to make paintings and editions, as well as
painted accessories such as handbags and sneakers. 

While his particular brand of
Pop-inflected familiar imagery is on its face a send-up of
capitalism, it has also proven appealing to brands
like Tag Heuer
and Philipp Plein, with whom he has collaborated. “I use many symbols of prosperity in my works,
and this plays well into many luxury brands,” he says.

Monopoly sees these
collaborations as a “new means of expression” and enjoys the
challenge of translating his work onto a watch face or a
handbag. Asked if he ever worries the partnerships will harm
his street cred, he cites others who have teamed up successfully
with luxury brands, like Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, and Virgil
Abloh.

“In 2019, there is no
superficial limit between art, street art, galleries, and brands.”
he explains. “The world of art has opened up. It allows artists a
much more extensive range across various creative
outlets.” 

In On the Joke

Ostensibly a commentary on
consumerism and a critique of cartoonish villains, Monopoly’s work
contrasts with his online persona, which so fully embraces “flex culture” (i.e.
ostentatious displays of wealth and frivolity) that one is tempted
to think it is all a performance connected to his art. His
habitual garb of gold chains and a jaunty top hat also leans
towards the farcical.

Asked whether we should be taking him at face value or with a
certain degree of irony, he says his work cannot be reduced to
simple criticism of the wealthy. “I
want people to see how Wall Street and the capitalistic are
ingrained in the culture, and how this translates into all of our
lives,” he says.

Those who like and share his
images become a part of his artistic statement, which does not aim
to place a value judgment on society. “Are we so evil for working hard to achieve
success and live the life that we have strived for since
childhood?” he asks. “Perhaps there is irony in that somewhere, or
maybe I am just another artist trying to shed light on a broken
system in the best way I know how.”

The post The Art World Thinks Alec Monopoly Is a Joke—But
He’s Laughing All the Way to the Bank appeared first on artnet
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