In Focus

Rebecca Morris

“The paintings I’ve been making for a while now are made through an incredibly light, liquid application of paint which is always trying to do the least for the most.”

Morris, who is based in Los Angeles, has spent the past two decades of her distinguished career expanding her own personal and idiosyncratic vernacular of abstraction. The artist’s distinct and constantly evolving motifs include step patterns, checkerboards, and overlapping hook shapes the artist refers to as “lobster claws,” a nod to her upbringing in Connecticut.

Morris applies paint from above with her canvas on the floor, working on custom scaffolding so that her characteristically thin oils soak into primed canvas rather than dripping right off the surface.

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#03-20), 2020
Oil on canvas
128 x 98 in (325 x 249cm)
RM9408

Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#03-20), 2020
Oil on canvas
128 x 98 in (325 x 249cm)
RM9408

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#14-19), 2019
Oil on canvas
79 x 79 in (200.5 x 200.5cm)
RM8929

Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#14-19), 2019
Oil on canvas
79 x 79 in (200.5 x 200.5cm)
RM8929

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#16-19), 2019
Oil and spray paint on canvas
60 1/2 x 54 1/2 in (153.5 x 138.5cm)
RM9387

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#04-20), 2020
Oil on canvas
102 x 87 in (259 x 221cm)
RM8927

Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#04-20), 2020
Oil on canvas
102 x 87 in (259 x 221cm)
RM8927

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#09-19), 2019
Oil and spray paint on canvas
54 x 55 in (137 x 139.5cm)
RM8930

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#01-20), 2020
Oil and spray paint on canvas
115 x 75 in (292 x 190.5cm)
RM9180

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#15-19), 2019
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 in (254 x 254cm)
RM8928

Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#15-19), 2019
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 in (254 x 254cm)
RM8928

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#12-19), 2019
Oil and spray paint on canvas
100 x 78 in (254 x 198cm)
RM9003

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Rebecca Morris
Untitled (#07-19), 2019
Oil and spray paint on canvas
59 x 54 in (150 x 137cm)
RM9080

Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works
Rebecca Morris Other Works

Rebecca Morris, Manifesto: For Abstractionists and Friends of the Non-Objective, 2004-2005.

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Tenzing Barshee and Camila McHugh, “Perverse Formalism: Rebecca Morris,” Mousse Magazine, April 2020.

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Essay by Tyler Blackwell. Rebecca Morris: The Ache of Bright. Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas, 2019.

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Text by Michael Goodson. Inherent Structure. Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 2018.

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