Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Aurora, New York— The Wells College Visual Arts Department welcomes Pittsburgh artist Michael Morrill with the exhibition “Pattern and Prayers.” Morrill’s work will be on display in the String Room Gallery (SRG) from March 30 through May 11. The exhibit is free and the public is cordially invited to view the show. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, March 30 from 6 – 8 pm.

The exhibit will feature serial oil and acrylic paintings by Morrill, an associate professor of studio arts at the University of Pittsburgh. Morrill’s interest in abstract art—and its interactions with modern digital technology—show in his work, which has evolved as a style since he began focusing on painting in the 1980s. In his artist’s statement, Morrill says, “My commitment to the language of abstraction stems from a belief that the expressive power of abstraction continues to hold potential for poetic visual experience.”

Since 2007, he has been expanding two bodies of paintings, titled the Linea Terminale and ISIS series. The Linea Terminale paintings derive from Morrill’s fascination with Galileo’s 17th-century drawings of the patterns of light and shadow he observed on the surface of the moon. The Linea Terminale paintings are diptychs made from joining two 20 x 16 in. canvases. Painted in two phases of color and value, each panel of the diptych is divided into an area of light and dark along an imagined terminator line, suggesting a distant, abstracted topography.

The ISIS series is a meditation on the presence and absence of light expressed through applications of black and white over color.  The title ISIS was selected for the symmetry of text, which echoes patterns of black and white and the repetitive rhythms of the painting technique.

Morrill received his BFA from Alfred University's School of Art and Design and his MFA from Yale University's School of Art. His work is represented in numerous private and corporate collections including the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Bayer Collection of Contemporary Art.

The String Room Gallery is a center for the exhibition of contemporary art in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It is located on the Wells College campus in the southwest corner of the first floor of Main Building. Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 12–5 pm; and Saturday and Sunday from 1–4 pm.

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