This work by Monica Rezman debuted in the group show Surface is Only a Material Vehicle for Spirit at Kavi Gupta in 2021, which was guest curated by sculptor Kennedy Yanko. Rezman refers to this body of sculptural works as three-dimensional painting. Some of the works hang on the wall, and others exist on the floor. The materials are recycled, readily available, and related to everyday life in her surroundings in Chicago, where she lives and works. "Sometimes I just go out into the alley and grab Amazon boxes to work with," Rezman says.

Rezman's studio practice is grounded in an exploration of feeling and intimacy within abstraction. After initially studying painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1970s, she expanded her practice to include textiles, drawing, sculpture, photography, and installation. The evolutions in her work are intricately tied to her experiences traveling and living for long periods in Italy, India, Guatemala, and Mexico, among other places. Rezman's idiosyncratic aesthetic language speaks to the collective totality of her experiences.

Several of Rezman’s bodies of work incorporate human hair, both as an allegorical and a linear or gestural element in the work. Recently, Rezman has been working with found cardboard and burlap sacks, building elemental sculptures that straddle a range of visual sensibilities from biomorphism to geometry, evoking a universe populated with abstract, hybrid synthetic-organic forms.

“I’m a seeker when it comes to making art,” Rezman says. “People see these leaps in my work and these big changes. I didn’t give up painting. I started creating these three-dimensional forms that I found more interesting than paintings on the walls. The process involves sewing and painting, and lets me explore structurally what it takes to build a form.”

Rezman studied painting and textile design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Instituto Allende in Mexico. She studied classical drawing and painting at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy. In 1999 and 2002, Rezman was awarded an Artist Residency in Gujarat, India. In 2017–18 she was the Artist-in-Residence at the Chicago Artist Coalition’s Field/Work program, as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL. Her work has appeared in New American Painting and has been extensively critically reviewed, including in Hyperallergic, New City, Times of India, Indian Express, and the Chicago Tribune. Her work has been exhibited internationally in many institutions, including at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; Riverside Art Center, Riverside, IL; Merida English Library, Mérida, Mexico; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Contemporary Art Gallery, Ahmedabad, India; and South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN, among others.