Joel Morrison, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris

Exposition Joel Morrison 
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris
9 janvier - 15 février 2014

Pour sa seconde exposition personnelle à la galerie Almine Rech, l’artiste californien JOEL MORRISON présente un nouvel ensemble d’assemblages en acier inoxydable. Un cadre conceptuel inébranlable est joint à des objets du quotidien et enchâssé dans des extérieurs lisses et raffinés. Grâce à des surfaces sans faille et à une fabrication impeccable, Joel Morrison lubrifie efficacement la réalité brute et parfois crue qui sous-tend son œuvre.

Oscillant entre art élitiste et art populaire, minimalisme et abstraction, ordre et chaos, Morrison touche un public divers grâce à un indéniable travail d’artisan, tout en maintenant une intégrité subversive. Il élève des objets trouvés organiques, divergents et apparemment arbitraires en leur offrant des rôles exaltés. Le motif cousu sur la couverture New Madrid est le même que celui d’une peinture de Frank Stella de 1961. Une viennoiserie française ordinaire est détournée sur un buste néo-classique, formant un croissant-moustache qui présente un surprenant parallèle avec la culture hispanique « cholo » du Sud de la Californie.

Des objets du quotidien comme des enclumes, des épis de maïs, des vestes cloutées et du papier d’aluminium sont coulés dans des métaux divers. Faisant usage d’un moyen d’expression souvent associé à une esthétique monochromatique froide et rigide, l’artiste s’oppose à cette interaction initiale en enveloppant l’œuvre dans des surfaces parfaites, miroitées et polies. Le spectateur se trouve ainsi immédiatement lié à l’œuvre, dans un rapport intime et personnel. Les couleurs de ses cheveux, de ses vêtements et d’autres éléments de l’environnement sont instantanément absorbées par la pièce. Bien que coulée dans une matière solide et très résistante, l’œuvre est sans cesse revitalisée par l’afflux de visiteurs et par son environnement.

Les surfaces raffinées des pièces évoquent une équipe de fabricants spécialisés, créant les œuvres au moyen de machines sophistiquées. Ceci contraste avec le caractère physiquement éprouvant et la minutie du processus analogue par lequel la main de l’artiste est littéralement impliquée dans chaque étape du processus.

Né en 1976 à Seattle dans l’Etat de Washington, JOEL MORRISON vit et travaille à Los Angeles en Californie. Il a participé ces dernières années à de nombreuses expositions dont Six Solos au Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, Ohio, 2011) et California Biennial au Orange County Museum of Art (2006). Son œuvre a également été exposée à la galerie Gagosian (Hong Kong 2012, New York 2011 -exposition de Joel Morrisson présentée ici-, Beverly Hills 2008). Joel Morrison a également occupé la Project Room du Santa Monica Museum of Art  (Californie, 2003).  

Galerie Almine Rech
64 rue de Turenne - 75003 Paris
www.alminerech.com 

Joel Morrison Exhibition Gagosian Gallery New York

Exhibition: Joel Morrison 
Gagosian Gallery New York 
Through June 25, 2011 

JOEL MORRISON’s sculptures take found, everyday objects to fantastic ends. Objects and materials, such as mannequin busts, toys, bubble-wrap, light bulbs, shopping carts, and bullets, are stripped of purpose and assembled into newly polymorphous forms which are then cast in luminous stainless steel or encased under painted fiberglass.

The gleaming refinement of Morrison’s stainless steel sculptures belies the intense amount of physical labor required to create them. Quickly and impulsively assembled, they are then subjected to the lengthy and arduous process of casting and intense polishing. One such work, Wiffle Ball (2010), calls to mind Salvador Dalí’s Retrospective Bust of a Woman, yet where Dali’s figure has a baguette perched ludicrously on top of her head, Morrison’s model has a spoon stuck to her nose and a hairdo concocted from wiffle balls, a similarly otherworldly persona. Untitled (2009) appears to be a John McCracken sculpture encased in bubble wrap, ready to be transported; however, it quickly becomes apparent that the original, transitory wrapping material has been cast in stainless steel, converting the once collapsible bubbles into obdurate sculptural forms. 

Though the genesis of the fiberglass sculptures is similar to that of the steel works, the end result shows how utterly divergent the two processes are. Just as the stainless steel underscores the original identities of the composite objects, the fiberglass binds and obfuscates them, so they strain for visibility and meaning beneath the painted surface.

The gritty, prankish nature of Morrison’s sculptures defies easy categorization as conceptual or merely formalist, as clever or decorative. Rather they operate on a fault line between critical engagement and spectacular aesthetics that is very much in the spirit of our times.

JOEL MORRISON was born in Seattle in 1976. He received his BA at Central Washington University and an MFA in sculpture at the Claremont Graduate University. His work has been exhibited internationally and is included in numerous public and private collections worldwide. His work was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts, and in 2006 he was included in the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art as well as in “Thing” at the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

GAGOSIAN GALLERY NEW YORK
980 Madison Avenue, NYC 10075
www.gagosian.com

Exhibition "Brave New World" at McClain Gallery, Houston - Clarina Bezzola, Alfred DeCredico, Faith Gay, Rebecca Horn, Mark Lombardi, Julie Mehretu , Joel Morrison, James Richards, Matthew Ritchie, Heidi Trepanier, Jason Villegas

Brave New World

McClain Gallery, Houston

May 22 - July 3, 2004

McClain Gallery presents the group exhibition "Brave New World" with artists Clarina Bezzola, Alfred DeCredico, Faith Gay, Rebecca Horn, Mark Lombardi, Julie Mehretu , Joel Morrison, James Richards, Matthew Ritchie, Heidi Trepanier, Jason Villegas.

Question: "If you visited a never before seen earth-like world, what would you bring back with you?" A limited answer is stories, ideas and physical objects. The exhibition, Brave New World, is formed around an idea of communicating this strange story or novel-esque epic by exhibiting works that tell stories, show fantasy forms and describe never before seen places. The exhibition seeks to transport the viewer into the various aspects of a "plot" where each work of art serves as a chapter, as if one is visiting a place and is experiencing it from numerous perspectives.

Clarina Bezzola - Her work deals with re-contextualizing traditional stories and often involves transmutation between physical forms. Her highly narrative work boarders on the surreal because of her exotic visuals, costumes and contexts.

Alfred DeCredico - His canvases are highly expressive and dense with heavy raw color. The canvases are full of goopy, drippy paint, primitive forms, figures and abstract shapes that make a rich narrative.

Faith Gay - She uses color like a pop-star. She elevates a common plastic bead by creating sophisticated compositions from various individual parts that come together in a symphonic organic color field abstraction. Her work suggests microbial organisms and sometimes macro views of land masses.

Rebecca Horn - Having had a long career, her work has manifested in many forms but she is best known for her performances incorporating body sculpture. She deals with issues concerning the body, vulnerability, isolation, history and environments.

Mark Lombardi - He creates visual narratives by diagramming the economic underpinnings of various organizations ranging from political groups, corporations and even individuals. Graphite and colored pencil illustrate exactly how far the influence of money travels across our globe.

Julie Mehretu - Her visual vocabulary incorporates maps, urban planning grids and architectural forms assembled in layers with color field, abstract geometry and maelstroms of color and line.

Joel Morrison - His sculptures are a fresh dialog on modernist sculpture. The cobbled armatures are formed from found objects that eventually become embedded beneath the fluid lacquered surfaces of his sculptures. The finished form seems like an organic machine paused in mid-motion with its skin stretched over the moving parts inside.

James Richards - His works take on sculptural aspects of painting completely ignoring ideas or the practicality of traditional surfaces. Richards uses colored and painted yarn or string to crisscross the painting stretcher; using the yarn like a drawn line. He is able to create dynamic compositions by filling with brightly painted surfaces and leaving areas of intertwined yarn to cast shadows against the wall.

Matthew Ritchie - His paintings tell the story of everything, from the beginning of time onward. Ritchie created a core group of characters drawn from sources as diverse as mythology, quantum physics, alchemy, gambling, biblical tales, and pulp fiction to illustrate a highly personal epic tale.

Heidi Trepanier - Her paintings are of highly organic fleshy forms oozing and acting out their momentary lives on her canvases. Seemingly microscopic forms are catapulted into enormous scale by sub-forms acting out their own dialog unaware of the larger presence.

Jason Villegas - He questions contemporary ideology and culture through a visual commentary on life's routines, private moments, personal relationships, mass consumerism, waste, and nature.

McCLAIN GALLERY

2242 Richmond Avenue, Houston, TX 77098

www.mcclaingallery.com