Browsing by Author "Morris, Richard"
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A Mile in My Shoes(2016-06-01) Morris, Richard; Watson-Trudgett, Maria; Collis, AndyCollaborations amongst artists have a rich International history in the Visual Arts. Collaboration amongst Indigenous, and non-Indigenous artists in Australia is a notion with a much smaller history. Such collaborations have become a special annual focus of the Gosford Regional Art Gallery as a means of showcasing artworks about Reconciliation, as it has impacted Australian culture and politics from the historic 1967 Referendum, and later, in the High Court Mabo decision. This group of three collaborators were successful in having work hung in last year’s Reconciliation, and continue to explore the collaborative exercise again here.
Item Barking Whales and Breaching Dogs(2002-07-01) Morris, RichardItem Bay(2011-05-01) Morris, RichardPaintings, such as Bay, which by nature are amassed from layers of deposited brushstrokes, have traditionally worked from the ‘ground’ to the ‘figure’ in the sense of differentiating figure/ground relationships in a work. Such an approach to paintings destroys much of the underpainting in a work for the purpose of resolving the compositional/aesthetic concerns of the artist. This body of work aims to employ a methodology of practice whereby the initial underpainting of a work is celebrated quite tangibly and visibly, in the final configuration of a work.
Item Bloom Exhibition(Robin Gibson Gallery, 2020-08-01) Morris, RichardBloom is and exhibition of works which could be described as two-dimensional assemblages which have as their subject matter Australian Flora. The exhibition had 16 works which were exhibited at the Robin Gibson Gallery August 1 -26, 2020.
Item Bower(2016-07-01) Morris, RichardThe work Bower which Richard Morris exhibited in Sculpture 28 is an assemblage made largely of painted wooden panels, and remnants of domestic furniture. There is a distinct relationship between the blue perimeter of the work, and the yellow oval form in the upper RHS, which play on the enclosed form of a literal Bower bird nest. The juxtaposition of a reductive palette plays a significant role in the work, creating a distinct asymmetrical compositional tension between the use of metallic blue, and yellow. Bower has both a figurative reference to a vertically oriented Bower bird nest, and a reference to the Abstract via the planar geometric furniture elements which constitute it’s peripheral form.
Item Channel(2015-02-01) Morris, RichardThe painting Channel - enamel and butyl rubber on plywood 36cm x 32cm in the exhibition Richard Morris Paintings 2015 exhibited at ASW Art Systems Wickham, Newcastle., was formed by deconstructing pre-painted panels, into narrow rectilinear units, which have been re-assembled into a horizontally stacked rectilinear configuration. By utilising a strictly horizontal assembly or ‘stack’ of painted ‘splinters’ of plywood, each with distinct variation in both colour and texture, the work entails a type of stratification, suggestive of a landscape ‘field.’ Such notions can be seen to stem from a similar structuring configuration in the horizontal bands of earth, water and sky which typify a conventional observation of the physical landscape.
Item Crisp(1997-10-01) Morris, RichardThe notion of employing a methodology for the assemblage of paintings has traditionally been utilized with modular exactitude as seen in the works of such artists as Imants Tillers who amasses identically sized canvas boards to configure pre-planned, much larger paintings. By extension, Rosalie Gascoigne has employed a similar methodology for her works which amass small fragments deconstructed from real world artifacts such as road signs, into a new ‘field’ of painterly configuration. However, in the true sense of the word, Gascoigne’s work is more in the order of assemblage than painting. Overlooked in these two approaches to configuration, is the idea that a painting can be formed by intuitively arranging pre-painted rectilinear, (though not identically shaped/sized) fragments, as the basis of a newly configured painterly matrix, which included an overlay of textual treatments.
Item Dice & Shell(2015-09-01) Morris, Richard; Collis, AndyThe process of art-making, particularly in the Western World, tends to be, with some notable exceptions, the practice of the individual; a singular artist expressing individual ideas in a visual form. Collis and Morris are two artists that have worked and exhibited extensively individually in their own individualistic ways of expression.
Collis is, generally, a figurative painter in acrylic and oils, working, usually, from the live motif; Morris is, generally, an abstract painter whose works often crossover into sculptural forms. In a broader area of research, they have ventured to examine the value and means of joining forces to both see how new work can be generated from collaboration and the effect of two diverse approaches on concept and practice.
To this end ‘Dice and Shell’ is one such work from what is intended to be a larger body of work, to be exhibited publicly alongside evidence of the collaborative process that took place. This work can be seen as a metaphor for collaboration – Morris generated the backdrop board from house-paints, washed and sanded – after which Collis chose disparate objects that needed to visually ‘collaborate’ on and with the painting after which a three-dimensional object (a Monopoly-piece toy dog) was adhered to the shelf-like structure of the sculptural background – thus giving a technical and visual crossover and merging of the two artist’s approaches.
Item Edge Tracking(2013-08-01) Morris, RichardSemi submerged detritus, and tangled rows of flotsam and jetsam have inspired the assemblage Edge Tracking which responds to the thin tidal edge of the Lake Macquarie foreshore. The work is a response to the tidal strip of land, which occupies the edges of Lake Macquarie’s intertidal zone which lays between the high and low tidal extremes as this unique environment. The work attests to the linear geography of this intertidal zone, made up from both its long thin trajectories of washed up items, and a distinctly eroded shoreline.
Item Engaging Faces: The Persistence of Traditional Portrait Painting Practices in a “Post-digital” Age(2018-01-01) Morris, Richard; Rosewell, Colin; Collis, AndrewIn the current global climate of contemporary art discourse, the term “post-digital” variously draws attention to the rapidly changing relationship between digital technologies, human beings, and art forms, an attitude that essentially concerns itself more with “being human” than with “being digital.” While the proliferation of digital imagery—particularly depicting the human face—has become commonplace and ubiquitous to the point of becoming somewhat unremarkable, portrait painting and public demand to see the painted portrait thrive vehemently today. Significantly, and perhaps surprisingly, is the fact that the majority of portrait-painting galleries and portrait-painting prizes uphold the traditional notion that the painted portrait be painted from life; that there must be some personal human encounter between artist and sitter either during or throughout the creation of the work. This article explores the significance of the “painting from life” clause as stipulated by specific gallery and competition stakeholders and its viability as an artistic convention in a period of advanced technological opportunities. It will be shown that such a clause may in fact embody important humanising elements that make it an extremely valuable means of representation in a “post-digital” age.
Item Fairweather(2014-07-01) Morris, RichardFace 2 Face is a group exhibition which has been curated by Robin Gibson from the Robin Gibson Gallery. The primary focus of the exhibition is portraits by the gallery artists, and invited artists, of other artists, both Australian and International. Portraiture continues to play an important role in Australian art circles as can be seen in the annual exhibitions The Archibald Prize, and the Doug Moran Prize. The portrait Fairweather which I contributed to the exhibition is a zinc plate etching on Fabriano 220gsm paper. The focus of the work Fairweather, was to capture a likeness of the artist, yet customise this likeness to reflect the inner struggles the artist had with anxiety and suspicion, while living a considerably hermitic life as an artist on Bribe Island near Brisbane. It was my intention capture the many facial lines of the artist via the etching process, which lends itself so well to such delineations.
Item Fire Crossing(2007-08-01) Morris, RichardThe assembled two-dimensional assemblages of Rosalie Gascoigne, exhibit a reconfigured concrete order via a process of de-constructing reflective plywood road signs. This methodology continues to underpin the practice of contemporary artists such as Tomma Abts who’s painting practice is neither abstract nor figurative, but a ‘concrete experience’ indebted to the material she employs in each work. The editorial process employed by each of these artists, has proved successful for the process of pictorial structure, yet to combine both of these methodologies within a single painting, such as Fire crossing, for the purpose of establishing new pictorial opportunities which combines painterly intuition, and deconstruction, beckons investigation.
Item Firebird(2013-01-01) Morris, RichardAssemblage traditionally centers on the transformation of conventional objects, and materials into sculptural forms via assimilating processes such as stacking, welding, gluing, suspending, etc. Such works have the ability to trigger poetic associations to the viewer based on their prior experience with the materials and objects they can observe within the assemblage. Although, assemblage works such as Firebird typically do not involve audience participation in the sense that viewers are encouraged to engage with the making of the work in a collaborative fashion.
Item Flavus Rostro(Campbeltown Arts Centre Gallery, 2020-10-30) Morris, RichardFlavus Rostro is two-dimensional assemblage which was short listed for inclusion in the 58th Fisher Ghost Art Award held at Campbelltown Arts Centre Gallery between October 30 and December 5, 2020. The dimensions of the work are approximately 100cm x 90cm x 5cm.
Item Float(2018-03-01) Morris, RichardThe body of work in the exhibition FLOAT were formed by extending the assembled plane in a vertical axis by which further painted components were added to the 'top' of a previously assembled 'bottom' layer of the painting. Essentially, this could be viewed as an inclusion of a 'z' axis to the established 'x' and 'y' axis' which have been utilised in all of my previous painting assemblages which have observable affiliation with the 'flatness' of traditional 2D paintings.
Item Frames(2012-08-01) Morris, RichardPaintings, such as Frames, which by nature are assembled from pre-painted fragments of some type or another can be seen in the work Brushstrokes Cut into Forty-Nine Squares and Arranged by Chance, 1951 by Ellsworth Kelly. While it can be seen that this work represents a synthesis between the practice’s of Collage, and Painting, it does not appear to be concerned with configuration beyond that which has been achieved by chance within the modular grid of identical parts comprising the completed work. Such an approach to assembled paintings overlooks the possibility of infusing such a methodology with a more heightened editorial process of re-forming a pictorial whole through the more deliberate editorial technique of varying the dimensions of fragment parts to attain this new pictorial configuration.
Item From Part to Whole: Synergy and the Assembled Trajectory(2015-02-01) Morris, RichardThe compositional flexibility inherent in an aesthetic compositional system such as the grid, and in the convention of assemblage, offer artist’s with a structural freedom to explore some evocative compositional possibilities. Examples of such possibilities can be seen in the assembled "trajectories" attending works which utilize a contiguous arrangement of discreet parts. A trajectory could be described as a discernable visual "logic," or visual coherence amongst distinct yet neighboring parts in a work, and in some cases, also their potential direction of interpretation. Such a trajectory may exhibit a unity of structure and fluidity of interpretation for the viewer, so that they may be able to discern a palpable synergism amongst dissimilar parts. This paper will look at a selection of works which can be seen to employ the grid and/or assemblage for the purpose of forming evocative linear trajectories. Common to each of the works explored, is the compositional juxtaposition of discreet components which have been utilized for the purpose of forming such trajectories. Each work will be discussed on the basis of the viewer’s perceptual encounter with specific trajectories identified in each work.
Item Grass Tree(Gosford Regional Gallery, 2020-09-25) Morris, RichardGrass Tree is two-dimensional assemblage which was short listed for inclusion in the 2020 Gosford Art Prize held at Gosford City Art Gallery between September 25 and November 28, 2020. The dimensions of the work are approximately 100cm x 90cm x 5cm.
Item Hover(2015-07-01) Morris, RichardThe painting Hover in the exhibition Well Red, was formed by deconstructing pre-painted panels, into rectilinear modular units which were re-assembled to form the works’ final configuration. This methodology for constructing paintings involves discreet stages of production beginning with the painting of panels in enamels and oils prior to cutting them into smaller rectilinear components with a table saw and a guillotine. These rectilinear components are then assembled into configurations indebted to the new relationships and tensions amongst the works’ component parts. By utilising the compositional opportunities afforded by a horizontal grid, along with painterly variations inherent in the panels themselves, Hover generates an illusory configuration of various weight white lines on a red ground. As such, the white lines appear to ‘float’ on the surface of the work, and this is further reinforced by the subtle trace of under-painted white lines appearing below the surface of the work.
Item Into the Woods(2023) Morris, Richard; Collis, AndyCollegial was and exhibition of 20 multi-panel paintings on paper produced in collaboration by Andy Collis and Richard Morris. The works were exhibited at Art Systems Wickham, Newcastle, October 20 – November 5, 2023.