Mali Morris | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts

Mali Morris RA

Profile

Royal Academician

Painter

Born: 1945 in Caernarfon, Wales, United Kingdom

Nationality: British

Elected RA: 16 March 2010

Gender: Female

Visit Mali Morris RA's website

Preferred media: Painting

Works by Mali Morris in the RA Collection

2 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

On painting

“What I love about a painting is the way it becomes a world, another world that moves you and draws you in.”

© 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
  
  2017 Pearled and Pasted and other new paintings, Fold Gallery, London
  PIER, Linden Hall Studio, Deal, with Stephen Lewis
  2014 Odelay and Wishpool, with Stephen Lewis, Kapil Jariwala, London
  2012 Mali Morris: Paintings, Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno
  Pressure Drop and Hoopla, with Stephen Lewis, Watchtower, Berwick upon Tweed
  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
  2002-3 Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, touring show
  2000, 2004, and 2005 in Tokyo, Japan
- Recent group shows
  
  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
  Abstract, 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.
  2015 Contemporary British Painting, Container Gallery, London
  Hommage and Transcription, Kapil Jarawala Gallery, London
  8-Connect, Linden Hall Studio Gallery, Deal
  Twenty, APT Gallery, London
  The Original Print Show, Zilla Bell Gallery, Thirsk,
  Stockwell Depot 1967-79, University of Greenwich Galleries, London
  Summer Mix, Turps Gallery, London
  P, Horatio Jr Gallery, London
  2014 Colour/Boundary, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne
  Switch, Pulchri Gallery, The Hague, Holland.
  2013 Without an Edge there is no Middle, Pluspace, Coventry
  Painting Past Present: A Painters Craft, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
  Pop and Abstract, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
  Panel Paintings, Eagle Gallery, London
  Atomic, Alli Sharma for Transiton Gallery, London
  Untitled 1:Glitch, Peackock Yard, London
  Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London
  2012 Double Vision, Lion and Lamb Gallery, London
  New Possibilities: Abstract Paintings from the 70s, Piper Gallery, London
  Finger, Hidde van Seggelen Gallery, London
  Pressure Drop and Hoopla, Berwick Watchtower, Berwick upon Tweed
  2011 Uncaught Hares, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London
- Selected collections
  
  Arts Council England
  British Council
  Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Arts Project
  Contemporary Art Society
  Eastern Arts Association
  Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  Government Art Collection
  Guildford House Gallery, Guildford
  The Kasser Art Foundation, USA
  Lloyds of London
  London Borough of Hounslow
  Marsh Collection, London
  National Museum and Art Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana
  National Museum Wales, Cardiff
  New Hall College, Cambridge
  Northern Arts
  Pallant House, Chichester
  Royal Academy of Arts, London
  Royal Collection
  Stanhope Properties plc
  Texaco Properties Ltd.
  The Long Term Credit Bank of Japan
  Triangle Workshop Collection, New York
  Universty of Chichester
  University of Lethbridge, Canada
  University of Reading
  University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  Warwick Arts Trust
  Welsh Art Council
  The Whithworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Art Sales at the RA
- 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
- 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

Shop the exclusive Mali Morris range
- Mali Morris Creekside Blanket
  
  Available exclusively at the RA, this beautifully crafted woolen blanket has a bold geometric, reversible design. Created as a collaboration between the designer Eleanor Pritchard and painter Mali Morris RA.
  
  Buy now
- Mali Morris Tangerine Bangle
  
  Another RA exclusive collection, this time between Mali Morris RA and internationally acclaimed designer Marlene McKibbin. This elegant stainless steel bangle is threaded with a vibrant tangerine acrylic shape.
  
  Buy now
- Mali Morris Pink Pendant
  
  Part of the RA exclusive Two by Two collection between Mali Morris RA and Marlene McKibbin, this delicate pendant features a double-shape of translucent pink acrylic on a fine adjustable cord with stainless steel trim.
  
  Buy now