PAUL MORRISON (b. 1966, Liverpool, UK)

Paul Morrison: MESOPHYLL

RARE IMPORT French Exhibition Catalogue

Published by Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France, 2003 on the occasion of the artists exhibit, 'PAUL MORRISON: MESOPHYLL', 6/21/2002 - 1/5/2003. Texts by Inge Linder-Gaillard and Morgan Falconer. Softbound, 64 pp., 9-1/4" x 11-1/2". Bilingual English/French; ISBN : 2-906732-75-3. As NEW.

In MAGASIN's 'Rue', the artist Paul Morrison created his biggest work yet, Mesophyll, a wall painting deployed across more than 140 linear meters. Daises, tulips and other giant, simplified flowers measuring up to 7 meters high tower over us. This time then the artist delivers a magnified garden, still black and white, where flora, scale and perspective are apparently sweetly harmonized.

The artist explains "I exclusively use black and white for many reasons. In fact, I think color is a very important element, so I allow it to exist only on the level of association. For example, you're free to think that the lines defining a certain kind of plant could be yellow and not green. There's no reason to include information in a literal way, because it's already codified. I limit myself to providing a framework, a context within the spectator can project information that conforms more to his interests, his previous experience."

Furthermore, Morrison often titles his works with vocabulary from the botanical world that evokes the presence of non-apparent colors and elements. Significantly, mesophyll is the inner tissue of the leaf blade of a plant, between the two layers of epidermis. In many plants this tissue is often not apparent though it contains a large number of chloroplasts which constitute the plant's principal photosynthetic tissue.

This monumental work cannot be taken in with one glance. Thus it remains to some extent always just beyond our visual, and perhaps our mental, grasp. Mesophyll started as 5 small ink drawings by Paul Morrison done in his London studio. Sent by e-mail, transferred onto a laptop computer and hooked up to a video projector, they were projected onto the walls, traced, and painted in by assistants chosen by the artist. Meticulous attention to detail and paint applied so as to erase the artistic touch work to create an overall effect of flawlessly rendered graphics that belies the tremendous amount of work - 400 hours - put into the wall painting's execution.

Born in 1966 in Liverpool, England, Morrison received a B.F.A. from Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1988, and an M.F.A. from Goldsmith’s College of Art, London, in 1998. His work has been presented at Harvard University’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA; The Drawing Center, New York, NY; ICA, London, UK; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuHKA), Antwerp, Belgium; Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and other art institutions. He is represented by Cheim & Read Gallery, New York, NY, Allision Jacques Gallery, London, UK and Galerie Michael Janssen, Cologne, Germany.

SELECT RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2022
'Paul Morrison: Catalpa', Knust Kunz Gallery Editions, Munich, Germany
'Paul Morrison: Mystacidium', VAN HORN, Düsseldorf, Germany
'Abrasive Paradise' (group exhibition), Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands

2021
'The Help Portfolio' (group exhibition), Jealous Gallery North, London, UK
'Some Versions of Landscape' (group exhibition), Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada

2020
'The Help Portfolio' (group exhibition), Jealous Gallery East, London, UK
'Hammer Projects: Paul Morrison', Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2019
'Paul Morrison: Dahlia', Knust Kunz Gallery Editions, Munich, Germany
'Paul Morrison: Dandelion', VAN HORN, Düsseldorf, Germany

2018
'Heads Roll' (group exhibition), Graves Gallery, Sheffield, UK 
'Superimposition: Paul Morrison, Barry Reigate, Michael Stubbs, Mark Titchner', Partners & Mucciaccia, London, UK

2017
'Paul Morrison: Black Grass', Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken Saarbrücken, Germany

2015
'British Landscape: George Shaw, Paul Morrison and Nina Murdoch', Maruani Mercier Gallery, Knokke, Belgium

2013
'Paul Morrison: Black Light', Dirimart, Istanbul, Turkey
'Crossing Lines' (group exhibition), Galerie Ruth Leuchter, Düsseldorf, Germany

2012
'Paul Morrison: Auctorum', Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK

2011
'Paul Morrison', Florigen, Fondazione Volume, Rome, Italy
'Paul Morrison', Alison Jacques Gallery, London, UK

2010
'Paul Morrison', Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zurich, Switzerland
'Seduction: The Allure of Flowers' (group exhibition), Galerie Maximillian, Aspen, CO
'Nothing is Forever' (group exhibition), South London Gallery (SLG), London, UK
'The Graphic Unconscious' (group exhibition), The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA

2009
'Paul Morrison: Drawings', Tanja Pol Galerie, Munich, Germany
'Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass' (group exhibition), KAdE Kunsthal, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
'Paul Morrison: Calathidium', Horticultural Society of New York, NY
'Paul Morrison', Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
'Paul Morrison', Cheim & Read, New York, NY
'The Garden at 4AM' (group exhibition), Gana Art, New York, NY

2008
'Take Me There Show Me the Way' (group exhibition), Haunch of Venison, New York, NY
'Paul Morrison: Exine', Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum of Art, Providence, RI
'Paul Morrison', Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami, FL
'Paul Morrison', Alison Jacques Gallery, London, UK
'Paul Morrison / Donald Baechler: Black & White Paintings', Galerie Alain Noirhomme, Brussels, Belgium
'Now Then' (group exhibition), Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK
'Paul Morrison', Las Vegas Art Museum (LVAM), Las Vegas, NV

2007
'Door Cycle' (group exhibition), Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
'Paul Morrison', Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK
'Kit Bashing' (group exhibition), Western Bridge, Seattle, WA

2006
'Into Black' (group exhibition), Western Bridge, Seattle, WA
'Paul Morrison: gamodeme' (O2art artist project series), The Contemporary Museum (TCMHI), Honolulu, HI
'Paul Morrison: Cognitive Landscapes', Galerie Maximillian, Aspen, CO
'Boys and Flowers' (group exhibition), Western Bridge, Seattle, WA

2005
'Painting the Edge: Michael Craig-Martin, Julian Opie, Lisa Ruyter and Paul Morrison' (group exhibition), Gallery HYUNDAI, Seoul, Korea
'Paul Morrison', Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany

2004
'Paul Morrison', Cheim & Read, New York, NY
'Paul Morrison', Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, Italy
'Paul Morrison', Kunstverein, Heilbronn, Germany

2003
'Phenotype', Galerie Michael Janssen, Cologne, Germany
'Brake', Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany
'Saxifraga, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy
'Haematoxylon', Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
'Forest', 34th Art Basel / Art Unlimited, Basel, Switzerland
'Fell' (recent works on paper), PS Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2002
'Mesophyll', Magasin, Grenoble, France
'Corymb', Kunstverein Ulm, Germany
'Cambium', Asprey Jacques, London, UK
'Bast', Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland
'Chloroplast', Southampton City Art Gallery, UK; Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany
'Paul Morrison', Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, Italy

2001
'Paul Morrison', Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
'Paul Morrison', Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
'Paul Morrison', Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
'Wallworks: Ingrid Calame/Paul Morrison', Aspen Art Museum, CO
'Paul Morrison', Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
'Scape', Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand
'Bright Paradise', Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand