Mali Morris | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts

Mali Morris RA (b. 1945)

Profile

Royal Academician

Painter

Born: 1945 in Caernarfon, Wales, United Kingdom

Nationality: British

Elected RA: 16 March 2010

Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2020

Professor of Painting: 2019 - 2020

Gender: Female

Visit Mali Morris RA (b. 1945)'s website

Preferred media: Painting

Works by Mali Morris in the RA Collection

5 results

My studio life

Artists' studios forever

“In 1995, a group of us set up Art in Perpetuity Trust (APT) in order to provide studios for around 40 artists – in perpetuity. We’re now in Deptford but previously we were in Greenwich for 20 years – it was idyllic and ramshackle, like the place that time forgot. I still live in the area, and I walk to the studio every morning across the Ha-Penny Footbridge over Deptford Creek.”

© Eamonn McCabe

A creekside view

“My studio is on the second floor, and I have a small balcony overlooking the creek, which is tidal, always changing. I like keeping an eye on it. Ducks, swans, a heron and a kingfisher pass by.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Inside the studio

“I usually have a lot of work in progress at any one time – they come in families, individual paintings that relate strongly to each other. I occasionally bring out earlier works, put them up and move them around and see how they inform each other. So there’s not really a linear progression – it’s more like a Möbius strip, a continuum.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Tools of the trade

“I use a variety of different tools, traditional artists’ brushes, housepainting brushes, sponges…”

© Eamonn McCabe

Specialist equipment

“…and these sponges on sticks…called diddlers.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Paints

“The local poundshop has useful stuff - buckets, scrapers, pots and so on, but I order paint from Golden, in the US, which is the best I’ve ever used.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Images and objects

“I have a lot of images and objects in this corner of the studio, things I’ve been given or collected over time. The yellow and red bowl was a present from my god-daughter Betty, and the plant is a Christmas Cactus that used to be in my parents’ house in North Wales. After they died I brought it back here to London and it still flowers every year around this time. The pot it’s in was my great-grandmother’s.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Poetry

“I don’t do a lot of reading in the studio, but I have many of my art books here, for reference, and poetry books, which accumulate. The compression in poetry has parallels with painting, in terms of how language, ideas and feeling relate to each other. I also have my back-copies of Turps Banana here – a journal written by painters about painters. I’ve had a couple of pieces published by them, on artists I admire. ”

© Eamonn McCabe

Chairs

“I love these blankets, two by the contemporary weaver Eleanor Pritchard who works a block away. The antique Welsh blanket on the left I bought on eBay recently. It is identical to one that my grandmother had when I stayed with her as a child.”

© Eamonn McCabe

At the end of the day

“These signs on the door are here to remind me to switch things off each day when I leave…they don’t always work”

© Eamonn McCabe

A painting offers another world to enter; essentially it is just inert stuff on a flat surface, but I love the way this visual language can come to life, opening up space and sensation...

Mali Morris RA

Gallery

Mali Morris RA, North & South, 2010.

Acrylic on canvas. 1975 x 2125 x 40 mm. Photo: RA © Access restricted.

Mali Morris RA, Dark Canopy, 2010.

Acrylic on canvas. 30 x 40 cm. (Private collection).

Mali Morris RA, Country Music, 2011.

Acrylic on canvas. 25 x 30 cm. (Private collection).

Mali Morris RA, Lap, 1998-2000.

Acrylic on canvas. 40 x 50 cm.

Mali Morris RA, New Blue, 2013.

Acrylic on canvas. 40 x 50 cm.

Mali Morris RA, Angel and People, 1979.

Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 171 cm. © Mali Morris. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum of Wales..

Mali Morris RA, Part-song, 2017.

Acrylic on canvas. 168 x 192 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Mali Morris RA, Pearled and Pasted, 2016.

Acrylic on paper. 60 x 76 cm. Image courtesy of the artist..

Selected CV
- Recent solo and two-person shows
  
  2019 Mali Morris: On Paper, Tennant Gallery, Royal Academy, London
  2018 John McLean & Mali Morris, Clifford Chance, London
  2017 Pearled and Pasted, New Paintings, Fold Gallery, London
  PIER, Mali Morris & Stephen Lewis, Linden Hall Studio, Deal
  2014 Odelay & Wishpool, with Stephen Lewis, Kapil Jariwala, London
  2012 Mali Morris: Paintings, Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno
  Pressure Drop & Hoopla, with Stephen Lewis, Watchtower, Berwick upon Tweed
  Mali Morris: Back to Front, Eagle Gallery, London
  2010 Mali Morris: Paintings, The Cut Gallery, Halesworth, Suffolk
  Mali Morris, Small Works, Royal Academy of Arts, London
  2008 Mali Morris: New Paintings, Poussin Gallery, London
  2005 and 2007: Robert Steele Gallery Project Room, New York
  2005 Mali Morris: Work From Four Decades, Poussin Gallery, London
  Mali Morris, Paintings, Omotesando Gallery, Tokyo
  2004 Simon Hitchens and Mali Morris, j+ban, Spica Museum, Tokyo
  2002 Mali Morris, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown
  Mali Morris, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
  2000 Alexis Harding and Mali Morris, Pumphouse Gallery, London
  Mali Morris, Gallery Saoh, Tokyo
- Recent group shows
  
  2020 Hard Painting x 2, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
  Supernova, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London
  Circling the Square, Thames-Side Gallery, Greenwich, London
  2019 Fully Awake 5.6, Freelands Foundation, London
  Present Day, Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester Harder Edge, Saatchi Gallery, London
  Carry On, Fold Gallery, London
  Kip Gresham in Collaboration, Downing College, Cambridge
  ‘point of view 2019’, in association with Hay Festival, Hay on Wye
  2018 Women Can’t Paint, Turps Gallery, London
  Proof Positive, Gibberd Gallery, Harlow
  touch, Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester
  + One, APT Gallery, London
  2017 Cabbages and Kings, Maddox Arts, London
  Contemporary Abstract Prints, Clifford Chance, London
  Touchstone, APT Gallery, London
  Creekside Eleven, Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk (curator)
  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, Brodrick Gallery, Hull
  Painting & Structure, The Kennington Residency, London
  Nine Painters, Syson Gallery, Nottingham
  Fully Awake, blip blip blip Gallery, Leeds
  Counterpoints, Eagle Gallery, London
  Women Artists: Power and Presence, University of Chichester
  Steal the Show, Glasgow Open House Festival
  Nine Painters, Syson Gallery, Nottingham
  Abstract, Paper Gallery, Manchester
  The Surface of Things, New Adelphi Gallery, University of Salford
  2016 Modern Mirror, Bread and Jam IV, London
  Cuts, Shapes, Scrapes and Breaks, Seventeen, London
  We Are The Dead, Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, Texas
  Juxtaposition, Zilla Bell Gallery, Thirsk, Yorkshire
  Turn the Colour Down!, Turps Gallery, London
  Tim Sayer Bequest, The Hepworth, Wakefield
  Kaleidoscope, Fold Gallery, London
  2016 – present Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
- Selected collections
  
  Arts Council Collection
  British Council Collection
  Chelsea & Westminster Hospital
  Contemporary Art Society, London
  Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  Government Art Collection, London
  Guildford House Gallery, Guildford
  Imperial Health Charity, London
  Ipswich Borough Council Collection
  The Kasser Mochary Foundation, Montclair
  Lloyds of London
  London Borough of Hounslow
  Marsh Collection, London
  National Museum and Art Gallery, Gaborone
  National Museum Wales, Cardiff
  New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge
  Pallant House, Chichester
  Royal Academy of Arts, London
  Royal Collection
  Stanhope Properties plc
  Stewarts, London
  Triangle Workshop Collection, New York
  University of Chichester
  University of Lethbridge Art Gallery
  University of Reading
  University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Art Sales at the RA
- Line Dance
  
  In her compositions Mali Morris RA explores layering and covering, creating tension and multiple spaces. Her carefully composed paintings often feature varying brush strokes and shapes that are then ‘buried’ in different ways. In this vibrant, printed image, Morris uses sweeping strokes and painted spots to create different levels within the work with some areas receding and some floating above the tangerine background.
  
  Buy now
- Ruby Tuesday
  
  To dynamic effect, Mali Morris RA translates her painterly preoccupations with colour, light and space – and how these relate to experience – into the very different medium of screenprint. These prints are available to buy through Art Sales at the RA.
  
  Buy now
- Bridge
  
  Bridge is a limited edition silkscreen, made with the master printer Kip Gresham. It explores a constantly shifting dynamic of space, built through colour, layering, and a process of many over-printings. The image eventually arrived at, discovered rather than designed, is direct, complex, and strongly luminous.
  
  Buy now