ASCENSION

Morris works across disciplines. This show includes four Face Paintings. These are characterised by a distinctive pictorial gesture that is repeated in meticulous detail and draws the viewer into an apparently endless sea of faces. In addition to the paintings are four towering stack sculptures. Three are formed from coloured plaster and sand, and one is cast in bronze. All appear to defy gravity, reaching majestically for the sky.  

Curated by Jane Neal, the exhibition explores the artist’s colour-filled language that uses  repetition as a device to compose intensely worked paintings, dense with pictorial matter and emotionally charged.  

“The emotional impact of her pictorial gesture accompanies the viewer in the transition from figurative to abstract painting” Morris' complex sculptures have been described by the Wall Street Journal as “Stacks of Joy” . 

Morris' complex sculptures have been described by the Wall Street Journal as “Stacks of Joy” . Comprised of stacked “spheres”, they create a strong dialogue with the artist's paintings, where hundreds of over-lapping faces have been forged from one continuous line. The paintings almost appear to vibrate with an obsessive, but tangibly playful energy. 

Annie Morris studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, where, in 2002, she won several awards. As a result of this early recognition, she began to gain critical attention for her extraordinary draughtsmanship. Morris' works have been exhibited in many important international institutions including: The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; the Baku MoMA, Azerbaijan; The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK and Tate St Ives, UK.