Sanjay Suchak: Monuments

2025-10-01

“MONUMENTS,” the all-caps in the title sounding a loud alarm, is the most significant show in an American art museum right now."  The Los Angeles Times

In conjunction with the new exhibition co-organized and co-presented by MOCA and the Brick, MONUMENTS, Monroe Gallery presents a special on-line exhibition of photographs by Sanjay Suchak documenting the removal of Confederate statues across the commonwealth of Virginia.

MONUMENTS runs from October 23, 2025 through May 3, 2026 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick, bringing together a selection of decommissioned monuments, many of which are Confederate, with contemporary artworks borrowed and newly created for the occasion. Removed from their original outdoor public context, the monuments in the exhibition will be shown in their varying states of transformation, from unmarred to heavily vandalized.

Photographer Sanjay Suchak was in Charlottesville, Virginia during the Unite the Right rally on August 11 and 12, 2017. Four years later, he was capturing the moment Confederate statues came down.

This is the story of the removal of Confederate statues across the commonwealth of Virginia, from the inside. Embedded with the workers removing these statues; these photos showcase the inside story of how the statues came down.