I can be reached at heartmattmorris (at) gmail (dot) com
5.30.17
CURRENTLY
Blue Mirror
Solo exhibition
Obst
1801 S Peoria Street
Chicago, IL 60608
May 13–June 3, 2017
The works in this exhibition consider the complex ways that the personal and social are given shape, often in overlapping, contingent configurations. Each object serves as a touchstone along a range of formative years in my life; taken together, memory gives way to a tenderly psychosexual series of associations.
Sashay With and Without History
Group exhibition
Curated by Holly + Zachary Cahill
Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago
319 N Albany Ave, Chicago IL 60612
June 4–July 15, 2017
Three One-on-Ones
Mel Bochner, Jessica Campbell, Matt Morris, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Kaylee Rae Wyant
Curated by Magalie Guérin
Macanich Arts Center
425 Fawell Blvd.
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, 60137
(Park in lot Fawell A)
April 15–June 11, 2017
A grouping of my monochrome paintings will be exhibited interspersed with polaroids by Andy Warhol, alongside similar pairings between Chicago artists and works from the College of DuPage's art collection.
It will be more like scratching than writing
Caroline Kent, Sofia Leiby, Suzanne McClelland, Emil Robinson
Curated by Matt Morris
Goldfinch
319 N Albany
Chicago, IL 60612
May 6–June 10, 2017
Opening reception: Saturday, May 6, 3–6pm
Within these paintings, a syntax of abstraction is examined, not only for its potential to organize into language but to question how such language is used. The paintings in this exhibition deal with surface as a site for incident, working across more than into a picture plane. Taken together, these painters de/construct a psychological logic for how mark-making is accreted, gestures recorded, and spaces of the audience press up against the fronts of their canvases. The title of the exhibition is drawn from a line in Clarice Lispector’s The Passion According to G.H. in which a domestic existential crisis dismantles the protagonist’s relationship to language, humanity, selfhood, and matter. While place, text, and means of apprehension are suggested in these works, they are suspended in tension with painting’s directness—a scratching that looks past communication and toward a potential to trouble the structures by which the world around these paintings is organized.
RECENTLY
Dinner Party
Lindsey French, Christalena Hughmanick, Joshua Kent, Matt Morris, Danielle Rosen
Curated by Kate Sierzputowski + Mary Eleanor Wallace
Tusk
3205 W Armitage Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647
April 7 + 8, 6:30pm + 8:30pm both nights
Two evenings, four seatings, ten guests per seating. Each artist will present an olfactory artwork for the evening. I have made a perfume called The Just Dessert that is available in a limited edition of recovered Devon milk glass bottles. I've collaborated with four writers who have crafted texts in response to the perfume: Reid Drake, Kelsey Harrison, Evan Kleekamp, and Rhonda Wheatley. Each will be wearing the scent while reading their texts at the events this weekend.
A Magician, a Soldier, and Two Figures Watching a Burning Skull
Cherry and Lucic
4077 NE 7th Avenue
Portland, OR 97212
Exhibition opening Saturday, September 17, 6:30–10pm
Exhibition continues by appointment through October 1
Poor & Needy
Curated by Lise Haller Baggesen and Yvette Brackman
The Great Poor Farm Experiment
Manawa, WI
Through July 2017 by appointment
Rashayla Marie Brown, Christa Donner, Jim Duignan, Michelle Eistrup, Anja Franke, Nanna Lysholt Hansen, Hannah Heilmann, Krabbesholm Højskole, Anni Holm, Ulla Hvejsel, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Jenny Kendler, Kirsten Leenars, Sofia Leiby, Tony Lewis, Josh Mittelman, Mobil Kultur Bureau, Matt Morris, Skovsnogen, Edra Soto, The Third Rail, Andrew Yang
Fiction (With Only Daylight Between Us) v. 2
Curated by Jeffrey Cortland Jones
An exhibition originating at Corridor in Dayton, OH including works by more than two hundred artists will travel to Boeckercontemporary in Heidelberg, Germany in October with additional stops in the works. Images of the works in the exhibition can be found here.
PDF-OBJECTS
Curated by Jason Lazarus + Sean Ward
Mana Contemporary
2233 S Throop St.
Chicago, IL 60608
Continues through October 1 before traveling to Berlin in 2017.
Kevin Maginnis: Spun
Stuart & Co. Gallery
2250 W Ohio Street
Chicago, IL 60612
September 24 – November 5, 2016
An installation featuring work by Nelly Agassi, Lise Haller Baggesen, Banrei, Erik Beehn, David Derish, Assaf Evron, Nicholas Frank, Julia Haw, Brad Killam, Shaina Lund, Sabina Ott, Roland Miller, Tommy Mishima, Matt Morris, John Riepenhoff, Tony Tasset, JS Wagner, CD Wu, B. Wurtz, Rodrigo Lara Zendejas
Made Up w/ Danny Volk
Featuring Matt Morris
Season 3, Episode 2
One of my favorite art phenomena is this web series by artist Danny Volk, in which he asks artists and cultural producers to do his makeup while he interviews them. I'm elated to be included in the current season, and my episode recently went live online.
My lecture Attachments + Intimacies that was presented
at the Cranbrook Academy of Art on February 16, 2016, may be viewed online.
WRITING PROJECTS
My Essay "You May Destroy the Body" was published in accompaniment to the exhibition Habeas Corpus, curated by Michael Milano for the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art featuring the work of Daniel Baird, Edmund Chia, Jessica Labatte, Kelly Lloyd, and Leah Mackin.
Exhibition continues at IMOCA through September 24.
PDF of essay available here.
One of the biggest accomplishments for me in 2015 was realizing the book for The Perfect Kiss (QQ)* *questioning, queer. Essays by Steven Matijcio, Gordon Hall, Annie Nocenti, and Steve Reinke, as well as an interview between Matt Morris and the curatorial collective Triple Candie. Designed by Frederick Eschrich and Rob Wilson. The book is available for purchase in Cincinnati at the Contemporary Arts Center, and in Chicago at Western Exhibitions, Sector 2337, Shane Campbell Gallery, and Kavi Gupta's Editions bookstore.
My essay "An Effect of Power" is included in the catalogue for Finocchio, an exhibition in which I was grateful to be included, curated by Scott Hunter at The Franklin in Chicago's Garfield Park. A digital version of the book is available online, with the print version expected for release later this year.
My essay "Power Up and Party Downer" is included in the stunningly produced Platforms: Ten Years of Chances Dances. Copies are available at Quimby's in Chicago, or you can order a copy here.
My essay "The Reproduction of Certain Scenes" was published in the exhibition brochure for Laura Davis' The Legacy of Loneliness at Threewalls. An extended version of the essay is available online here. Since we've gotten into 2016, Threewalls has been going through difficult times, and I'm honored to have been able to work with their amazing staff on Laura's show.
My essay "Bonus Holes" was included in the catalogue published for Zoe Nelson's fall exhibition at Cleve Carney Gallery at the College of DuPage. Print copies are available from the gallery, and a digital version is available online here.
OLDER NEWS
Aaron Delamatre invited me to contribute a panel to his web comic Dungeon Face, a pick-yr-own-adventure fantasy story that is directed by fan voting on Facebook. Click here to see my contribution.