With a special interest in the darker side of sprawling metropolises, Ryan Monahan's collection of grungy city tableaus, complete with corner bodegas, adult video stores, abandoned store fronts, capture the spirit of the inner city in minature. Monahan, who is a graphic designer during the day, has been building the scaled-down models and sharing on his Instagram for close to five months. With a close familiarity with the gritty side of the greater Chicago area, Monahan is careful to pinpoint every single detail in his sculptures from debris on the ground to graffiti on awnings.
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His official site says that one scene “can take several weeks or even months to complete depending on the complexity of the piece.” He tells The Creators Project, “With miniatures, there is a great amount of fine detail that is involved, and by nature[,] this creates additional, necessary time. I often incorporate everyday objects into my sculptures, such as a toothpaste cap as a lampshade, or a paper clip as a door handle. [T]he challenge of finding the right item for the job is always fun."From the bodega advertising cheap beer or the stoop littered with cardboard boxes, the artist is dedicated to the scummiest corners that make up a city. Monahan says, “I really love the way cities look in their most uncensored state…dirty, trashed, broken, similar to the way major cities looked in 70s and 80s before everyone wanted to ‘clean [them] up.’ "
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