About Monica and her Artwork

Photograph of Monica by John Stephen Hockensmith

bio and artist statement

Monica Anne Pipia, b 1958 - Evanston, Illinois.

Pipia’s artwork is in the permanent collection of the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead, Kentucky, the University of Kentucky Medical Center, Henry Clay Foundation,Kentucky Eagle Brewing, and Ruggles Sign Company, as well as the New Omni Hotel in Louisville ,the Embassy Suites on Lexington Green. Her work is also a part of several private collections, including Dark Hollow Farm in Upperco, Maryland. She has served on the Kentucky Folk Art Center Board for 10 years and was a member of the committee that developed the first fundraiser for the museum. She has exhibited her work at the University of Kentucky, Arts Place, the Kentucky Folk Art Center, the Lexington Arts and Science Center, and numerous galleries across the country from a horse-and-rider exhibit in Los Angeles to a juried show with the Academy of Equine Arts in Farmington, New Jersey. She was the solo Artist at the Kentucky Three Day Event in 2022 and 2023.

She is a recipient of the Andy Warhol Fellowship Award, the Kentucky Foundation for Women Grant and a VIP award for her residency in Alaska with the National Park Service. Pipia was nominated for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks poster image 2016 and was selected as the first Revel Artist at the Artisan Center in Berea Kentucky. Her goal is to simply keep creating art and bringing it into the public eye.

Athena and her horse at the horse show an acrylic on canvas painting .

Medium

My medium is Acrylic on canvas or paper. I also use sand in the paint. Sometimes I do mixed medium with natural and found objects. I have a series of reclaimed American flags.

I try to recycle as much as possible and will paint over or the term is pentimento which is a visible trace of earlier painting beneath a layer or layers of paint on a canvas.

This technique is part of my natural self taught practice.

Dana Di and Running for Roses at the Omni Hotel : Louisville

Inspiration

I primarily work with the horse, dogs, sailboats, bicycles and symbols and myths. Its not about the Horse was a title at my University of Kentucky exhibit in 1999. I never dreamed I would paint so many horses.

Running for Roses was commissioned by The New Omni Hotel in Louisville Kentucky. As I worked up the piece I found myself writing in the negative space each Kentucky Derby Winner.

I thought the viewer would also enjoy reading the names and dates to connect with the history of this iconic race.

MyArtwork reflects a personal journey of self. My love of the horse, the freedom of the sailboat and bicycle to transport and my companionship of the dog to name a few.