Joel Morrison

Joel Morrison

• Artist Biography
• Artist Exhibitions

Joel Morrison was born in Seattle in 1976. He received a BA in English Literature at Central Washington University, and an MFA in sculpture at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.

Working primarily in sculpture, Morrison uses found and everyday objects to create a unique and sharp sense of tension in the surfaces of the sculptures he creates. He demonstrates his technical ability to manipulate these chosen objects—which have included water bottles, vitamins, light bulbs, grapes, toilet plungers, latex gloves, sneakers, bullets and hot dogs-- with works that range from plays on Greek sculpture to grotesque, amorphous forms spewing out of what appear to be their insides. Morrison's assemblages evoke art-historical precedents from Christo and Jeff Koons to formalist innovations by modernist sculptors including Constantin Brancusi and Henry Moore.

One constant in Morrison's body of work is a dynamic conversation between his own brand of humor and the canonized body of art history. The sculptural result of this dialogue is a landscape of unnatural peaks and unidentifiable protrusions that together become a fresh, outrageous and arresting work of art with a heavy dose of playfulness.

In 2006, he was a featured artist in the California Biennial held at the Orange County Museum of Art, as well as a participant in the critically acclaimed Thing exhibition at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. His numerous other group and solo exhibitions have been at venues throughout the world including the Kolbe Museum, Berlin; Santa Monica Museum of Art; Art Forum, Berlin; and the Haus Am Waldsee Museum, Berlin.

His first exhibition with Gagosian Gallery, circus, will open June 14 2008 in Beverly Hills. A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Rainer Croner and Aimee Change will accompany this exhibition.