Erin Morrison at Samuel Freeman

“RELIEF”
February 28 – April 4, 2015

https://samuelfreeman.com/current-exhibition/

Complex technique which is not overruling the balance of the painting. Strong work. Excellent. Bch

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 color.  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 color 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 brush stroke is applied.  The final painted marks—abstract forms, language fragments, and figurative elements—are equally oblique references to Terry Winters, Paul Klee, and Grecian archeology.