About the Artist
Monica Petzal (MA RCA) FRSA
Monica Petzal was trained as an artist and art historian, and has had a diverse career as an artist, academic, critic and curator.
A citizen of both the UK and Germany she is intensely interested in her German Jewish heritage.
Education
North London Collegiate School 1964 – 1971
Kingston University BA Hons. Fine Art 1976
University of Sussex MA History of Art 1977
Royal College of Art MA (RCA) Fine Art (Painting) 1981
London University of the Arts (Camberwell) MA Printmaking 2001
Trustee
2009 – 2016 Trustee of the Printmakers Council
2014 – 2025 Trustee of the Dresden Trust
2019 – 2025 Vice Chair, The Dresden Trust
2024 – Trustee of the Curwen Print Study Centre
2024 – Trustee Jurnet’s House, Norwich
CV
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Monica has shown her prints and works on paper at diverse venues, including the Drawings show at the Hayward, the Whitechapel Open and the RK Burt Gallery, Bankside. Her most recent group exhibitions include: Bristol, Spike Island 2009; Originals 10 at the Mall Galleries; Printmakers Council at the Bankside 2010; ‘Lost for Words ‘at UCLH Arts 2012 and ‘Process and Innovation, British Printmaking Japan’ the Kyoto Museum 2012, The Pie Factory in Margate in 2016, Kings College and Regents College London 2018 as part of Art and Reconciliation and at the International Printmaking Biennale in Duoro.
Her most recent solo show was ‘Dissent and Displacement’ at Leicester New Walk Museum in 2020. Before that ‘Indelible Marks’: The Dresden Project Kreuzkirche Gallery in Dresden, Germany and the Herbert Museum, Coventry, UK in 2015 -2016.Her work is held in public collections including the Diocese of Dresden, Murray Edwards (New Hall College), Cambridge, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal College of Art the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry and Leicester New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.A series of six large drawings at Sugar Quay House in London.Work is also held in private collections in the UK, Germany, and the USA.
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Monica is the owner and director of Printroom dealing in contemporary printmaking since 2006. Based from 2006- in Hampstead, Printroom operated online and from a large studio and gallery space in Suffolk from 2016 and at selected Art Fairs until November 2023. It is now only online.
She has selected and curated many exhibitions including the LCC ‘Spirit of London’ in the 1980’s,’Art, Age and Gender and ‘Uncanny Tales’, an FWA / Arts Council Touring exhibition in 1998 and 2004.She was a selector for: 7th British International Mini Print Exhibition 2008; Originals 09; Invited artist selector for Originals 10; Pushing Print in Kent 2010. In 2012 she was the co-curator with Rebecca Salter PRA of a ‘Process and Innovation, British Printmaking Japan’ for the Kyoto Museum.
She was a trustee of the Print Makers Council and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She writes extensively including for Printmaking Today. She talks on printmaking to students and practitioners and was a guest speaker at the Printopolis International Print Symposium in Toronto 2010.
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From 1981 -1987, Monica was a lecturer in painting, drawing and art history at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London College of Printing, Epsom College of Art, and the Farnham College of Art. She was visiting lecturer at St. Martin’s, Middlesex, RCA and for the Whitechapel and Saatchi Galleries.
From 1992-2006 she was a director of The Foundation for Women’s Art (FWA), a non-profit organisation that she co-founded in 1992. FWA’s mission was to increase public knowledge and understanding of the work of women artists, both historic and contemporary. FWA had an extensive programme of exhibitions and events educational and community activities, research, and publications over a period of 14 years The work of FWA is currently being digitally archived.
From 2000 – 2007 Monica was an interviewer for the British Library / Tate Archive Artists Lives, ‘Art Professionals’ Oral history project, http://cadensa.bl.uk undertaking life story interviews with curators, critics, dealers and gallery owners. Her interviewees included Annely Juda, Norbert Lynton, John Kasmin and Leslie Waddington.
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Monica was an art critic for Time Out from 1979 -1988, including six months full time as art editor. She also contributed to Art Monthly, Artscribe, Artforum, THES, The Democrat, Printmaking Today and many other publications, and wrote several exhibition catalogues. She also worked as a freelance broadcaster on the arts, for BBC programs such as Woman’s Hour, Meridian, and Kaleidoscope. Her most recent work in 2019 has been an interview for the artist Graham Crowley for his retrospective.
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From 1992 – 2006 Monica Petzal worked as executive and project director for East City Investments a property company in which she was a shareholder based in London EC1. Her role as client for this company involved commissioning and working with architects on major refurbishment projects. Architecture practices she has worked with include Caruso St. John, Sergison Bates, Alford, Hall, Monaghan and Morris (AHMM), Dow Jones Architects and Studio James Grayley.
Biography
I was born three weeks after the Coronation of Elizabeth II to German Jewish refugee parents, and grew up in north west London close to Hampstead Heath. I occasionally attended North London Collegiate School, where I did not excel, after which I started art school. After studying painting at Kingston Polytechnic, I took an MA in Art History at the University of Sussex under Norbert Lynton and David Mellor. In 1978 I went to the Royal College of Art, Painting School, then under the formidable professorship of Peter de Francia. I emerged at 28; an artist, an art critic and shortly afterwards a university lecturer, the latter two professions to make a living. I did a lot of writing to deadlines and plenty of studio work teaching painting, both of which I greatly enjoyed.
By 1992, three children later, and horrified at the status of women artists (including myself), I co-founded of The Foundation for Women’s Art. FWA was a charity aimed at increasing public knowledge and understanding of women artists through exhibitions, many of which I curated and wrote about. By the time it closed in 2006 I felt the issues had moved on.
In between, I had become fascinated by print and in 1999 went to Camberwell School of Art to take a 2-year MA in printmaking. I started to show my work more widely, and have it collected by museums and kind individuals. I selected, spoke about, wrote about and curated print exhibitions, including co-curating ‘Process and Innovation, British Printmaking Japan’ at the Kyoto Museum with Rebecca Salter PRA.
I started a gallery in 2006. Printroom, in Hampstead, dealt in contemporary printmaking, it was tiny, and a modest and enjoyable success from the start. It moved with me and my husband Chris to Suffolk in 2014, where it lived happily in a large, converted cowshed and online until November 2023. The space is now used for events and selected exhibitions.
My interest in family stories is long standing and for some years I recorded life story interviews for the British Library National Life Stories, including some exceptional individuals: Annely Juda, Norbert Lynton, John Kasmin and Leslie Waddington. Increasingly I focused on my own family and their complicated and often untold stories, though I was too late to record them in person. In 2013 I went to work in the city print studio in Dresden. These prints became ‘Indelible Marks: the Dresden Project’, shown in 2014 at the Kreuztkirche Gallery in Dresden, Germany for the 70th commemoration of the bombing, and at the Herbert Museum, Coventry, UK in 2015 -2016 for the 75th commemoration of that bombing. I also made a large print installation ‘The Coventry Dresden Towers’ for Coventry Cathedral.
In 2017 I was commissioned to make ‘Dissent and Displacement a large multifaceted exhibition by Leicester New Walk Museum and Art Gallery. This opened at the beginning of February 2020 and closed with the onset of Covid.
I am currently working on a project about the Holocaust in the Netherlands
In 2014, after the referendum on membership of the EU was announced, I applied for, and received my German citizenship. This is of enormous benefit not only to me in terms of travel and my future but to my children and grandchildren some of whom have chosen to live and work in Europe.
I live with my husband, retired psychiatrist and writer Dr Chris Maloney on an old farm near Framlingham in Suffolk.
Between us we collect a lot of pictures and books.
I am active within several charities:
I was approached by the Dresden Trust in 2014 a small charity that works on reconciliation between Britain and Saxony, to become a trustee, and I retired in February 2025 as the Vice Chair.
I am a trustee of the Curwen Print Study Trust 2024 -
I am a trustee of the Jurnet’s House Project based at Norwich Synagogue 2024 -
I am actively involved with the AJR (Association of Jewish Refugees)
Exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions include:
Drawings exhibition at the Hayward, the Whitechapel Open and the RK Burt Gallery, Bankside.
Since 2000, group exhibitions include: Bristol, Spike Island 2009; Originals 10 at the Mall Galleries; Printmakers Council at the Bankside 2010; ‘Lost for Words ‘at UCLH Arts 2012 and ‘Process and Innovation, British Printmaking Japan’ the Kyoto Museum 2012, The Pie Factory in Margate in 2016, Kings College and Regents College London 2018 as part of Art and Reconciliation and the International Printmaking Biennale in Duoro. Recent work Ballroom Arts Aldeburgh 2025.
Solo exhibitions:
‘Dissent and Displacement’ at Leicester New Walk Museum in 2020.
Coventry Dresden Towers, Coventry Cathedral 2015-16
‘Indelible Marks’: The Dresden Project Kreuzkirche Gallery in Dresden, Germany and the Herbert Museum, Coventry, UK in 2015 -2016.
Her work is held in public collections including the Diocese of Dresden, Murray Edwards (New Hall College), Cambridge, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal College of Art the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry and Leicester New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.A series of six large drawings at Sugar Quay House in London.Work is also held in private collections in the UK, Germany, and the USA.
Publications and Events
2025
2023
