The Monochrome Interiors Trend Has Jumped the Shark

One of life’s mysteries: monochrome shouldn’t be cool, but it kind of is. Say you want to dress or design in one bright color, head-to-toe or floor-to-ceiling, and it sounds like an elementary school craft. (I imagine pools of tempera paint.) But the evidence tells a different story—see Rihanna’s green-on-green-on-green “Bitch Better Have My Money” look; Pietro Nolita, a healthy Italian restaurant swathed in pink; and of course, Prince in a purple suit with a purple guitar, possibly even singing “Purple Rain.” And now, there’s CJ Hendry’s show Monochrome, in which the Australian artist transforms a Greenpoint warehouse into the single-color universe of you never dared to ask for.

Hendry is known for her photorealistic, perhaps cynically Instagram-friendly drawings of everyday objects—shoes, balloons, and dabs of oil paint—and designed the installation around a series of new works depicting crumpled Pantone paint chips. Seven rooms are devoted to seven colors, from Dutch orange to a flat emerald green, lemon, and indigo; they're somewhere between cool and fun-house claustrophobic. “Each room has been designed to emulate the art on the wall,” Hendry said. “The art is the focus, everything matches the art.”

Monochrome is on view at 276 Greenpoint Avenue from April 5-8. See photos below.

Photo by Brendan Powell, courtesy of the artist.

Photo by Brendan Powell, courtesy of the artist.

Photo by Brendan Powell, courtesy of the artist.

Photo by Brendan Powell, courtesy of the artist.

Photo by Brendan Powell, courtesy of the artist.

Photo by Brendan Powell, courtesy of the artist.