EASY MONEY
21 JANUARY - 28 FEBRUARY, 2020

Gallery Jeeum is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Los Angeles based artist Erin Morrison’s work in Hong Kong.

For the past two years the artist has focused her unique sculptural process of gypsum cast relief on early coins circulated in the United States before and shortly after its founding. While the interest began purely as a material curiosity, her motivations as to which coins to reproduce began to shift after the artist moved to Hong Kong late July 2019. Between studios and countries, and whilst in periods of isolation during the COVID19 pandemic, she began making watercolor studies of Imperial Hong Kong coins as a daily meditation practice on global capitalism and the fluidity of intuition.

For her exhibition “Easy Money”, the artist has produced 5 large works on paper reflecting on the Straits Settlement copper piece circulated by the British East India Company through regions of Southeast Asia established as outposts during and after the second Opium War. These territories include what are now parts of Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. In an effort to gain control over the export of Opium, while maintaining a monopoly on the narcotic industry it created in the region, The British Empire began a crusade of conquest that benefited its status as a global partner in
trade. The adaptation of Feudal labor methods at the peak of the Industrial Revolution permitted the tycoons of trade to yield enormous profits while establishing a sub-caste of workers dependent on the corporations success. While the East India Company experienced enormous growth and contributed greatly to the expansion of the global economy, like modern mega-corporations it too fell in debt to the Crown, resulting in the first massive government bailout of a multinational operation that had become too big to fail. 

The exhibition itself, a meditation on the accumulation of wealth andthe implied  definition of it, presents the least valued coin on a scale mirroring that of a tombstone. Their means of production is both improvisational and calculated, in the attempt to mirror the reproduction of their grandiose symbolism as both mundane and visceral propaganda. 

The CAD's inaugural issue leads readers through the shifts and themes of Morrison's career to date in a beautifully crafted book that is itself a work of art. Edited by CAD founder Julian Lombardi, this sixty-page volume includes over thirty full color illustrations, a conversation with the artist, and critical essay entitled "Smoke in Eye" by artist and CAD contributor Serena Caffrey. Accessible and intimate, with an emphasis on the personal and emotional in addition to Morrison's more subtle cultural critique, this book belongs on the shelf of curators, academics, and art admirers alike.

Additional specs:
Soft-touch laminate cover
Lay-flat binding
80 lb. Mohawk interior paper
Printed and bound in the U.S.A.
9.25 x 11.25 x .375 inches

ORDER HERE

COLONY
SEPTEMBER 7 - OCTOBER 5, 2019

Ochi Projects is pleased to announce Colony a solo exhibition by Erin Morrison. This is her second show with the gallery. For this exhibition, Morrison will unveil a new body of painted bas-relief sculptures influenced by historical currency produced in the European settled colonies of the New World. Please join us for the opening on September 7th from 6-9PM.

Greeting the viewer upon entry is a three-panel mural depicting 15 snakes. Writhing in rows and woven together, the serpents create a mesmerizing, undulating patterned cloth that recalls the deceptive serpent of Genesis. Cast in tinted gypsum and rendered in low relief, the tessellation references histories of weaving and domestic labor, while evoking the sinister undertones surrounding snakes throughout mythology. While some stories connect the serpent to human kind’s fall from paradise, many more stories have placed similar blame on the true root of all evil: Money.

“Inimica Tyrannis America” is a Latin phrase that appeared on some of the first coins designed by the United States of America shortly after the Declaration of Independence. Although the phrase was broadly interpreted as “America fiercely opposes tyranny,” literally translated however, the phrase actually reads, “Unfriendly Tyrant, America.” The coin depicts a female figure standing with one foot on a British crown while holding a bow in one hand and a downward facing arrow in another. Today, the irony of the coin’s symbolism, which was clearly lost on our forefathers, challenges whatever noble beliefs one might hold about the way American history has been presented. The methods by which early Americans “settled” this country is riddled with troubling contradictions that we, as a country, must take into account moving forward. 

 

The Contemporary Art Digest is a digital and print resource for artists and art audiences. 

The CAD distributes content from emerging and established artists through social media and online platforms (@The.C.A.D), as well as publishing artist monographs from artists at diverse stages of their career. Their inaugural publication featuring the work of Los Angeles painter Erin Morrison is in its final editorial stages. 

The CAD will host a release event concurrent with Morrison's solo exhibition at Ochi Projects, September 2019.

To subscribe for updates please visit: www.thecad.org

My work is featured in a new book by Juxtapoz, available through major book retailers, direct from the seller, and Amazon. 

"Juxtapoz Black and White" spotlights 28 contemporary artists from David Shrigley to Shantell Martin, Geoff McFetridge to Katy Ann Gilmore, who strip their work down to basic, often breathtaking black and white. The immutable black line is primal and direct, originating in prehistoric cave drawings first rendered in charcoal eons ago. Within the pages of "Juxtapoz Black & White," an impressive list of artists with fascinating results affirm the role monochromatic treatments play in their practice. Paintings and drawings bolster this dialogue in lavishly presented, oversize format. More fascinating contributors such as Cleon Peterson, Saner, Matt Leines, Brendan Monroe, Mrzyk & Moriceau, Carl Krull, Nicomi Nix Turner and many more join the armament of black and white offerings. With this latest release, the Juxtapoz book series has been re-designed in a new oversized paperback format for maximum viewing pleasure."

To order visit: Juxtapoz shop

UNTITLED
Ochi Projects, Booth B18
Pier 35, 1454 The Embarcadero
San Francisco 

January 18, 19, 20, 2019

Elevator Mondays, Group Exhibition
1026 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles

October 31 - Decemeber 10
Opening Reception October 31, 7-10PM

Featuring Ian Hokin, Ian James, Mervin Jules, Erin Morrison, Molly Surazhsky, Pamela Valfer

Ochi Projects, Group Exhibition
VACATION Gallery
24A Orchard Street, New York

October 6 - 28
Opening Reception October 6, 6-8PM

Featuring Tanya Brodsky, Nasim Hantehzadeh, Lilian Mertinez, Erin Morrison, Claudia Parducci, Rives Granade, Ben Sanders, James Seward

HEAT WAVE / REACHING POINT BREAK
A Binder of Women, Group Exhibition
Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco
August 18 - September 15, 2018

Featuring Kysa Johnson, Claire Colette, Michelle Blade, Jamie Felton, Erin Morrison, Lindsey Lyons, Anna Schacte, Maysha Mohamedi, Laurie Nye, Bruna Massadas, Yasmine Diaz, Rema Ghuloum, Sarah Thibault, Chinwe Okona, Ginger Wolfe-Suarez, and Kristy Luck.

AN HOMAGE TO HOLLIS BENTON
Fact and Fiction Collide Inside an Exhibit Inspired by a "Forgotten" L.A. Legend - and Beverly Hills Cop 
Over the Influence's lastest exhibition, An Homage to Hollis Benton, flips reality on its head

June 12, 2018 Andrea Alonso

AN HOMAGE TO HOLLIS BENTON
Group Exhibition curated by Aaron Moulton
Over The Influence, Los Angeles
May 25 – June 24, 2018

Opening Reception Thursday May 24, 6-9PM

Featuring work by Kathryn Andrews, Dan Attoe, Mike Bouchet, Ellen Carey, Vuk Cosic, Bret Easton Ellis, Cayetano Ferrer, Clement von Franckenstein, Sayre Gomez, Robert Graham, Trent Harris, James Havard, Gregor Hildebrandt, Alex Israel, Paa Joe, Matt Johnson, Lazaros, Joep van Liefland, Mike Z Morrell, Erin Morrison, Mark Mothersbaugh, Patrick Nagel, LeRoy Neiman, Ry Rocklen, Ed Ruscha, Anja Salonen, Camille Schechter, Max Hooper Schneider, Peter Shire, Don Sorenson, Alexis Smith, Mungo Thomson, Andy Warhol, Jennifer West, Jonas Wood, Robert Yarber

ZONA MACO ART FAIR
Ochi Projects, Los Angeles 
Erin Morrison and Zio Zegler
February 7 - 11, 2018

Centro Citibanamex, Hall D
AV. Conscripto 311
Lomas de Sotelo
CDMX, 11200

THE LETDOWN
Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, Solo Exhibition
October 28 - December 9
Opening Reception October 28, 6-9pm

This presentation of relief sculptures made in complementary pairs, created by Morrison’s unique process combining both printmaking and casting techniques, brings to the forefront a conversation between artifact and replica. Referencing Etruscan frescoes, early Puritan Gravestones, and more directly the gestures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s dynamic figurative works, Morrison recasts these symbols with the industrial material of gypsum cement, alluding to the way artifacts are imitated if not outright looted — their original purpose and significance lost or misinterpreted. Through this process of dislocation, artifacts or replicas often take on a new kind of cultural significance where their possession and display is meant to indicate status and wealth.

Do these objects that imitate artifacts become kitsch when a “faux” material meant to imply this sense of value fails to do so? Imitation gold and silver, for instance, are often employed in this effort and are featured predominantly in the exhibition. Recalling a piece of jewelry Morrison had in the 90s, two large panels depict evil eye chains in gold and silver leaf. The evil eye, originally a talisman considered to have magical powers of protection, is depicted with broken links, revealing its artificiality, refuting its symbolic properties and transforming it into a cheap trinket.

Morrison further mines this moment of failed expectation. The Letdown, sharing their title with the exhibition, are two panels of milky-colored recurring wave patterns. The works are named after the physiological response that occurs during breastfeeding; the letdown involves the release of oxytocin (the “love” hormone) strengthening the bond of mother to child. The works recall a memory of simultaneously experiencing the letdown breastfeeding her son while feeling extreme despair watching Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign concession speech. This bittersweet moment triggered a heightened awareness of injustice so profound that it called her to action, altering her sense of place and duty in the world. Turning the waves into guilded flames, she carries this experience of complicated emotion into Ecstasy, two panels depicting gesturing hands. Though hands are a repeated trope in Morrison’s work, here they specifically reference Bernini’s The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Teresa, (one of the few female saints) accounted to have experienced a love of God with a pain “so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.” This conflation of the body’s letdown while feeling emotionally let down, waves of euphoria and waves of pain, inform Morrison’s understanding of high and low, unmet expectation, false narrative, and the power of imagery and symbolic gesture.

Despite the cynicism required to grasp the concept of kitsch, Morrison nevertheless strives for a level of repose in her pieces. In two final panels Morrison recreates a souvenir pendant that depicts a landscape. She recognizes that while it may have sentimental value it is not a piece of fine jewelry. Interrogating and transforming the souvenir into art object through her labor-intensive process, Morrison seeks a sincere means of making something well-crafted and whole.

WHEN THE FIRE BURNS OUT
Katie Sinnott and Erin Morrison
Chimento Contemporary, Los Angeles
July 29 - August 19

END OF SUMMER: SUMMER SHOW
24 Hour Charlies, Malibu, Group Exhibition
September 3-4, 12pm-12pm

Featuring work by Rema Ghuloum, Shanna Waddell, Margaux Oden, Trulee Hall, Matthew Page Greene, Matthew Lax, Anna Breininger, Lauren Quin, Erin Morrison, Dustin Metz, Paul W Waddell, Young Joon Kwak, Lili de Magalhaes, Elizabeth Ferry.

OBJECT DECORUM
Ochi Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho, Solo Exhibition
August 13 - September 30

Ochi Gallery is pleased to present Object Decorum an exhibition of new work by Erin Morrison. This is the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery. It will open Saturday August 13th and will continue on view through September 30th. An opening reception will be held August 13th from 5pm – 7pm.

Erin Morrison makes her paintings by casting hydrocal surfaces in a monoprint process with materials such as fabrics and linoleum to provide texture and create three dimensional grounds upon which she then applies paint. This process creates a particular spatial flattening, similar to collage, where the resulting singular surface is reliant on of the traces of many. The finished surfaces have a kinship to ancient reliefs or medieval tapestries, their imagery narratively evocative even while relying on simplistic forms and compositions.

This exhibition marks a turn by Morrison to more industrial materials for her relief methods. Architectural motifs such as the patterns from concrete walls around her neighborhood and industrial floor covers provide new textural associations and pull the outside world into the work. Balancing this tougher textural palette in the casting is renewed attention to the texture of the paint itself. Especially in work such as Black Hand, repeated cleaning and polishing are combined with a sealing application of wax to create a smooth, luxe surface that calls to mind California’s Finish Fetish movement.

With this body of work Morrison’s subject matter moves to the drawing room. Still lives, vases, ferns and flowers all speak of the most formal of the domestic spaces, a place where nature is subjugated by etiquette. Decorus objects are those that are well behaved. They are at home in drawing rooms and country clubs, spaces ruled by good taste. A painting is the quintessential decorus object, a marker of the status and class of its owner, it adds pleasure and decoration to its environment.

- text by Katie Bode

A PLOT OF LAND
Sonia Dutton Gallery, New York, Group Exhibition
May 13 – June 19, 2016

Featuring work by Colby Bird, Molly Larkey, Erin Morrison, Kate Newby, Louis Reith, Jennifer Rochlin, Brion Nuda Rosch

MEMORY THEATER
Group Installation by Srijon Chowdhury, UPFOR Gallery, Portland
April 13 – May 28, 2016

Featuring work by Arnar Asgeirsson, Jack Bangerter, Sarah Burns, Alexander Collins, Scott Cowan, Katy Cowan, Liz Craft, Zoe Crosher, Roy Dowell, Alec Egan, Grace Eunchong, Andreas Gurewich, Regina Herod, India Lawrence, Ellen Lesperance, Sofia Londono, Jason Bailer Losh, Anna Margaret, Erin Morrison, Kori Newkirk, Jorunn Hanke Ogstad, Pablo Picasso, Fay Ray, Charlie Roberts, Allison Schulnik, Brian Strandberg, Katie Thoma, Dani Tull

TEMPORARY INSTALLTION, SOHO WEST HOLLYWOOD ATRIUM
curated by Sharón Zoldan
January 4 - 31, 2016

DEEP SUPERFICIAL PERCEPTIONS
CES Gallery, Los Angeles, Group Exhibition
January 16, 2016 – February 20, 2016

Featuring work by Samantha Bittman, Julia Bland, Matias Cuevas, Alex Ebstein, Aaron Farley, Doty Glasco, Erin Morrison, and Loring Taoka

WHEN THE SUN HITS
The Pit, Glendale, Group Exhibition
August 9 - September 20 2015

Featuring work by Miyoshi Barosh, Channing Hansen, JPW3, Jennie Jieun Lee, Erin Morrison

Exhibition review: The LA Times

ONE FOOT ON THE GROUND
James Harris Gallery, Seattle, Group Exhibition curated by Alexander Kroll
July 2 – August 15 2015

Featuring work by Tomory Dodge, Joanne Greenbaum, Jane Hugentober, Tom Knechtel, Erin Morrison, and Craig Taylor

Exhibition review: New American Paintings

RELIEF
Samiel Freeman Gallery Los Angeles, Solo Exhibition,
February 28 - April 1 2015

Samuel Freeman is pleased to present Relief, Erin Morrison’s debut solo exhibition.  Working with plaster, paint, and fabric, Morrison creates highly tactile surfaces that exist somewhere between painting and sculpture—as relief.  By paying homage to tradition while respecting physical and cultural materials, the work permits a broader audience than one within the contemporary institutional framework.

Each piece begins with a unique handmade quilt, sewn from fabrics selected for surface texture and ability to transfer colour.  These intentionally modest abstractions are used to form a plaster cast over a stretched burlap frame. The quilt is peeled away when the plaster has set, leaving behind a low-relief topography of colour and form, shredding the source material in the process. This shallow plaster surface becomes Morrison’s “blank canvas,” rich with implicit meaning before even a single brushstroke is applied.  The final painted marks—abstract forms, language fragments, and figurative elements—are equally oblique references to Terry Winters, Paul Klee, and Grecian archaeology.

Through the use of the quilt, each work arises from an historically complex ground. Influenced by the German textile designs of Annie Albers, Gunta Stolz, and Sonia Delauney, as well as the geometric improvisations from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, Erin Morrison takes abstract patterns and imagery to produce an aesthetic language stripped of literal meaning yet complexly referential in placement.  By decoupling her referents from their context, the work is relieved of historical burden—as craft, domesticity, utility—and in doing so, revels in the nuance of source and final form.

Exhibition Review: The LA Times
Exhibition Review: Art Talk, KCRW