Rebecca Morris (born 1969 in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

) is an abstract painter who is known for quirky, casualist compositions using grid-like structures. In 1994 she wrote ''Manifesto: For Abstractionists and Friends of the Non-Objective'', a tongue-in-cheek but sincere response to contemporary criticism of abstract painting. She is currently a professor of painting and drawing at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. Prior to that, she lectured at numerous colleges including

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, Bard College, Pasadena City College, USC's School of Fine Arts, and the University of Chicago.

Early life and education

Morris was born in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

and grew up in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, which she says is a place that inspires some of her work. She received her BA from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

and her MFA from

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum a ...

Work

Morris's artistic process may be characterized as casual, fluid and spontaneous. Inspired by craft and decoration, Morris explores the idiosyncrasy and imperfection of the artist’s hand. "I was always interested in creating systems and plan-type drawings." she said in a 2014 interview. "As a child, I drew floor plans of split-level houses, and plans for cities and towns. I also drew imaginary family trees, which were based on a grid-like system, but they featured cat families instead of people families." Morris avoids describing subject matter as she does not want to dictate what interpretations her painted forms may elicit. Some of her influences are the physical space of her studio,

Raoul De Keyser Raoul De Keyser (29 August 1930 – 6 October 2012) was a Belgian painter who lived and worked in Deinze, Belgium. He was associated with the Flemish New Vision movement and gained international recognition after Documenta IX in 1992. His ...

Joan Mitchell Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

, James Meyer, and

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist music, minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notab ...

. Some compositions are made working flat on the floor, and many include colors that suggest a kind of interior of overlapping paintings, objects, and arrangements of items on a wall. Her artistic practice has been likened to

Laura Owens Laura Owens (born 1970) is an American painter, gallery owner and educator. She emerged in the late 1990s from the Los Angeles art scene. She is known for large-scale paintings that combine a variety of art historical references and painterly te ...

's free sense of historical reference, as well as

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

and

Richard Tuttle Richard Dean Tuttle (born July 12, 1941) is an American postminimalist artist known for his small, casual, subtle, intimate works. His art makes use of scale and line. His works span a range of formats, from sculpture, painting, drawing, print ...

Awards

Morris is a recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

and has also received awards from The City of Los Angeles, Tiffany Foundation, The Durfee Foundation, Art Matters, and the Illinois Arts Council.

Exhibitions

Morris has exhibited at 2014 Whitney Biennial (New York), The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, Made in LA, Hammer Museum, The Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland), Friedrich Petzel (New York), The Hessel Art Museum (New York), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Night Gallery (Los Angeles). She has shown with

Mary Boone Mary Boone (born 1952) is an American art dealer and collector. As the owner and director of the Mary Boone Gallery, she played an important role in the New York art market of the 1980s. Her first two artists, Julian Schnabel and David Salle, b ...

and Bortolami in New York.

References

External links

Artist's official website

Artist's works
as presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Rebecca 1969 births Artists from Honolulu Living people Smith College alumni Painters from Los Angeles School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters Casualist artists