Monitor Gallery's International Expansion: Paola Capata Interview

Founded in Rome in 2003 with a focus on video art, Monitor Gallery expanded to New York's Lower East Side from 2013 to 2015 and opened a second permanent space in Lisbon in 2017. In an interview with Artribune, founder Paola Capata discusses the gallery's evolution, strategies, and market challenges. While maintaining its video art roots with artists like Nathaniel Mellors, Laurent Montaron, and Pat O'Neil, Monitor has increasingly focused on figurative painting, representing international painters Ian Tweedy, Peter Linde Busk, Benedikt Hipp, and Italians Nicola Samorì, Matteo Fato, and Thomas Braida. The gallery is currently hosting a group show titled "If is untouchable is not beautiful" featuring five young Italian female painters. Capata describes the New York space as a temporary project to understand the US market, while Lisbon is a permanent outpost with a dense program alternating local emerging artists with represented ones. Regarding art fairs, Monitor prioritizes Italian and Hispanic fairs this year, having focused on the US previously.