Artist in conversation: Mali Morris RA
Friday 14 June 2019 6.30 - 7.30pm
The Reynolds Room, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
£10, £6
Mali Morris RA: On Paper
Royal Academician Mali Morris discusses her latest exhibition and display, both taking place at the Royal Academy, as well as her career and practice, with author and poet, Martha Kapos.
Acclaimed artist Mali Morris RA focuses on the expressive possibilities of abstract painting. Her work draws on many sources but constantly explores how colour can structure light and space. For her exhibition in the Tennant Gallery at the RA, Morris has selected twenty-three of her works on paper from different periods of her career including plein air paintings in watercolour made in Cyprus and Canada, works from the series Edge of a Portrait, in which Morris explored her fascination with profile portraits from the Italian Renaissance, and later works in acrylic that explore different ways of structuring colour.
Alongside this exhibition, Morris has curated a display in the Collections Gallery, selecting works from the thousands of works in the RA Collection. The mingling of RA treasures – including pencil drawings by J.M.W. Turner RA and Gainsborough – with commonplace examples of the studio life of Royal Academicians, such as doodles, scribbled notes, painting tools and materials, celebrates the unique character of the RA's wide ranging Collection.
Mali will discuss her thoughts behind her exhibition and display, as well her wider practice and career with author and poet Martha Kapos, who has written the gallery guide to accompany her displays.
Mali Morris RA had her first solo exhibitions at the Serpentine Summer Show in 1977 and Ikon Gallery in 1979. Since then she has exhibited in over thirty five solo shows worldwide and many group exhibitions, including at the Whitechapel Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Hayward Gallery and the Barbican as well as a number overseas. Her work features in private and public collections worldwide including the Arts Council of England, British Council, Royal Collection and Whitworth Art Gallery. She has been on the selection committee for Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Painting Fellowships and John Moores Painting Prize (China). She has also taught at many Departments of Fine Art including Royal College of Art, Slade School of Art, and Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London, where she was Senior Lecturer in Painting from 1991–2005.
Martha Kapos is a writer and poet. She has two books on painting and poetry to her name, as well as criticism in various art magazines and artists’ catalogues. Her first poetry collection, My Nights in Cupid’s Palace (Enitharmon, 2003), received a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation and won the Jerwood/Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection. Supreme Being (2008), and The Likeness (2014), also published by Enitharmon, both received Poetry Book Society Recommendations. She taught Art History at Chelsea School of Art until 2001, and is currently Poetry Co-editor of Poetry London.
The event will be followed by a book signing of Mali Morris: Paintings, by Sam Cornish, published by the RA.
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