Rebecca Morris

Rebecca Morris (born 1969 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is a distinguished American painter based in Los Angeles who has spent over three decades exploring abstraction. Currently on the faculty at UCLA's School of the Arts and Architecture, Department of Art, Morris is celebrated for her large-scale paintings and innovative approach to composition, color, and gesture. Her work has been featured in major institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Whitney Biennial, Hammer Museum, and Bonnefanten Museum in the Netherlands.

Morris is dedicated to the exploration of abstraction, working with thin, matte washes of color juxtaposed with shimmering metallic impasto. Her practice involves recurring motifs like fragmented patterns, distorted grids, and her signature 'lobster claw' motif. She often thins oil paint to resemble watercolor, creating patterns that evoke soil samples, bacterial cultures, and aerial landscapes. Morris positions her large canvases face up on the floor and uses custom-built scaffolding to work on pieces significantly larger than her own body. She is particularly known for her reverence of red, having set a personal goal to paint 'the ultimate red painting.'

Critical analysis of Morris's work consistently examines her relationship to historical movements like Pattern and Decoration and Supports/Surfaces, while noting her refusal to be categorized within a single movement. Her paintings generate formal tensions between flat surfaces and discrete objects, exploring color theory through both subtle earth tones and vibrant metallics. The 2023-2024 survey exhibition at MCA Chicago highlighted her progression through 27 paintings spanning 21 years, showcasing her evolving visual language.

Her significant recognition includes:

• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
• Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
• California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Art
• Art Matters Foundation Award

Morris's 2023 monograph 'Rebecca Morris: 2001-2022' published by DelMonico Books features essays by Jamillah James, Anthony Elms, Alex Jen, Camila McHugh, and Hamza Walker. Her studio practice involves techniques including erasure, dripping, and spray painting, with the visibility of the artist's hand evident in every gesture. As she stated in her widely circulated 2005 manifesto: 'Abstraction never left, motherfuckers.'