We’re starting 2023 as we mean to go on – by welcoming an incredible artist to the gallery.
After our Buying Team encountered her work up close over at Miami Art Week back in December, we’re delighted to announce that the work of Sarah Morris is now available at Enter Gallery.
In today’s blog, we’re revealing a little more about this exciting artist, and introducing you to her celestial 2020 Lunar Series…
Big City Girl
Sarah Morris is a London and New York-based painter and filmmaker, best-known for abstract works exploring the psychology and dynamics of urban cities around the world.
Morris’s films and paintings work in parallel, and over the years, she has produced works depicting the essence of cities including, Rio, L.A. and Washington D.C.
Academia Militar [Rio], 2013
The artist’s city-based paintings are always created using household gloss paint on square canvases. Each piece is derived from Morris’s close inspection of every facet of the city, from its unique vocabulary and colour palette, to the dynamics and protagonists that make the locations unique.
Speaking to Interview Magazine about her city paintings back in 2017, Morris explained:
“It’s always been sort of a misunderstanding that the paintings are about architecture. They’re not really. They use architecture. They use the strategies of architecture—distraction and scale. And I title them after existing or past places that have been institutions of authority, whether for the good or for the bad.
The paintings themselves are almost like virtual places, almost like looking at the world from GPS topological software. I’m really interested in the development of QR codes and how they were used to bring you to a specific object but now they’re used to bring you to specific places or times. I was thinking that the paintings sort of function like that. They’re my version of a QR code. The paintings are portals.”
Lights, Camera, Action
Morris’s non-narrative films also dive into the complexities of different urban locations. For example, in her 2005 film, Los Angeles, Morris explores the entertainment industry and the complicated relationships between film and TV studios, producers, directors and ‘the talent’.
Also in her extensive oeuvre are films like Capital (2000), her series about Washington D.C. in which she gained unprecedented access to Bill Clinton during his final days of office, and Beijing (2008), which explored the 2008 Olympic Games in the city.
The Power of the Moon
Morris created her Lunar Series during the pandemic in 2020. By depicting the Lunar calendar for each month of the year, Morris explored this unusual moment in modern history - a period when time really did seem to lose all meaning.
The set of 12 silkscreen prints depicts the phases of the moon throughout the year.
The Lunar Series is available as a set or as individual pieces. Explore the series here.
