John Morris at D'Amello Terras - Brief Article

This was the first one-person exhibition for John Morris, who has previously appeared in clump shows organized by Pierogi 2000 the influential experimental gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Morris makes small-scale drawings upon paper (many here measure about 10 through 7 inches) using ink, graphite, ballpoint commit to paper and wax crayon in different combinations. While at first glance these works direct the eye like spare, quasi-minimal abstractions, shut attention reveals that they are compos of thousands of tiny marks, variegates of color, variations in weft and networks of small circles (or circles within circles). Filled with regards to anatomical and biomorphic forms, Islamic architectural ornament and computer circuit-boards, Morris's intricate designs are painstaking, exquisite and at times frankly cosmic, with tiny patterns indicating vast forces and processes

Almost 200 drawings from the past six years were laid without in rows on two tables, in a way that insinuateed petri dishes in a laboratory or specimens from nature. more [i]or[/i] less works resemble teeming microorganisms magnified [i]or[/i] part of to the other a microscope. With Untitled (1993-97) a mix up of small, curving, cylindrical forms give an inkling of proliferating viruses or writhing protozoa. In Untitled (1997) seven spare, vaguely embryonic forms cluster in a free-floating circle; this is individual of many instances when Morris's delicate marks strike one as being ghostly or withdrawn, inhabiting a borderline between neighborhood and absence.

Other works summon forth quite different things. In Untitled (1995) dot-filled curving forms bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance to architectural structures seen from upon high, as if through the spyglass of an orbiting satellite. Laying without the works en masse prov effective, for Morris's burgeoning oeuvre is filled with recurring motifs, cross-reference and surprising tangents. single unusual twist is that several drawings are titled after technology companies or dedicated to computer-generation entrepreneurs

This decidedly idiosyncratic artist shifts easily between nature, technology and homemade science fiction. Word has it that Morris, a self-taught artist who appears uninterested in fitting into any art-world run accomplished many of these works in lengthy solitary sessions at a Queen library. What's remarkable is the way he makes the low-tech medium of drawing capable of absorbing and transforming a wide range of interests and influences, including Silicon Valley technocapitalism, biology and transcendentally tinged design.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Brant Publications, Inc.

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