Play Too Much
April 23 - June 8, 2019
Opening reception April 23rd, 6-9pm
73 Allen Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10002
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What camera function does a living room perform? Lens, keeper, flash? The events that occur within this seemingly private space position the subjective body to be confronted, welcomed and familiarized over time. Framing borderless spaces, Play Too Much considers standing furniture and domestic environments in relationship to transcendence, performance, ownership, innocence and desire. Morris builds environments in ways similar to a contractor each surface considered for its purpose and engineered to withstand use. However, unlike a contractor, Morris reimagines the operative properties of domestic objects as narrative surfaces and honors past experiences, deceased elders, disease and familial relations. Constructing tender exchanges, emotionally rendered figures daydream domestic mobility, fraternal and otherwise. Queer environments, rarely found, are more insistently exposed.
Having moved often in his childhood, Morris posits familiar but distant narratives that exist beyond the frame as forever spaces. Figures are laid bare — revealed to the histories that structure their environments. In sacred, private settings, they explore and reckon with partnership through innocent exchanges. Seeking innocence, a quality of perspective Morris felt denied to him after the murder of a close family member, is an act of reclamation for the artist. Play Too Much is an alarm, like a rooster’s crow come morning; you remember its reverberation but not always what day or event the sound announces. Nonetheless the call is dangerously present and effortlessly familiar each time you hear and at that moment, you know something must occur.
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Caretaker; A Happening
Coordinated by Maxx Wade & Asa Thornton
Agnes b. | 50 Howard St. | August 1, 2019
3:33 pm "This Might Be A Light Worker You Know", 2019 | Acrylic, oil pastel, collage, foam core, wood veneer, cabinet door, ceramic door knob, inkjet print on silk, polyester, 60.5 x 46 inches
9:38 pm "Black and Red and Sometimes Blue", 2019 | Acrylic, oil pastel, wood, photo collage, canvas, wood veneer, color pencil, charcoal, and paper collage, 50 x 34 x 6.5 inches
11:27 pm Sit Down and Rest My Nerves, 2019 | Oil pastel, acrylic, cotton, collage, silk, metal and ceramic door knobs, oil crayon, wood veneer, plastic prescription bottle, plexiglass, photo collage, color pencil and charcoal, 50h x 42 x 12 inches
Playing Roles on TV: Wife, Mother, Grandmother Diptych, 2018 | Acrylic, color paper, color pencil, oil pastel, silk, leather on paper, Two parts; 30 x 22 inches each
Soft Enough To Rest Your Back, 2018 | Acrylic, pastel, charcoal on paper, 29.75 x 22 inches
My Day One, Bending Knee (Chair 1), 2018 | Acrylic, oil pastel, leather, charcoal on paper
29.50h x 22w inches
Behind A Long Line (Chair 2), 2018 | Acrylic, oil Pastel, charcoal, paper, leather, wood rod & silk on paper, 29.75 x 21.75 inches
Standing On Two Legs, 2018 | Acrylic, pastel, charcoal, wooden chair legs, wooden cabinet doors, plastic covered cushion on canvas, 48 x 38 inches
One Cup, Two Doors, Three Plates, 2018 | Oil pastel and acrylic on paper, 18 x 14 inches
Like a Sunday Afternoon Marketplace encourages gathering, sitting, resting and catching up. Often, one learns of a movement or some creative leader's work going into extinction. As a space for aquisition, I am interested in the life of the object consumed and utilized. Is the object cherished? Following it's consumption and purpose for this object is it then archived?
Like a Sunday Afternoon is offered kindly to convene with art, artists and the objects they make. Offering you, also, the possibility to ponder how will you archive this space that we look forward in sharing together.