Kristen Morgin, whose work is formed with a mixture of clay, glue, cement and other media, comes from a ceramic background but goes far beyond traditional uses of the medium. Her sculptures have an affinity to the constructions of George Herms, Edward Keinholz, and Michael McMillen, but evoke relics of contemporary culture that may have been buried and unearthed at a later date. Toys, books, comics and other objects are rendered true to scale in unfired clay and recall the artist’s childhood. Corroding surfaces evoke mortality, decay and the passage of time. Eccentric narratives and playful juxtapositions come together to form new objects with unexpected connotations.
Morgin was born in 1968 in Brunswick, Georgia. She completed her BA at California State University, Hayward, and her MFA at Alfred University. Morgin’s work is in the permanent collections of institutions such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, and The Rubell Family Collection. Her work has been included in exhibitions such as The Thing (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles), Monumental (New Museum, New York) and the Istanbul Biennial, curated by Jens Hoffman. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
My Love Must Be a Kind of Blind Love, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA
2022
K. Morgin: 21st Century Works 2001-2019, Sokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2019
Jennifer Aniston’s Used Book Sale, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
2017
There’s No Need to Fear, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA
2016
My Best to You, Little Girl – Boy, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
SO IT GOES, A-B Projects, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
2015
Messages to My Twenty Year Old Self, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA
2014
The Super Can Man and Other Illustrated Classics, Zach Feuer, New York, NY
Things I Learned from Comic Books and Bumper Stickers, Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
2013
Kristen Morgin New Work, Anthony Meier Fine Art, Park Avenue ADAA, New York, NY
2012
The 21 Days Show, University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Gallery 101, Athens, GA
Snow White in Evening Wear and Other Works, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2010
New York Be Nice, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY
Huckleberry Finn, Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA
2009
Cellos, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, Kent and Vicky Logan Galleries, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2008
objects for everyone I have ever known, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Untitled Exhibition, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2004
The Third Movement, Viento y Agua Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2001
The Ticking Elephant and Other Surviving Excerpts of the Hope Symphony, Cuesta College Art Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Model World, Tierra del Sol, Los Angeles, CA
2023
Pollen on a West Wind, Jason Jacques Gallery, New York, NY
Barrio Barrio, Guerrero Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Seismic State: California Ceramics, Sparrow Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Breaking Ground: Women in California Clay, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA
2021
Felix Art Fair 2021, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Los Angeles, CA
A Dead Reckoning: Navigating Contemporary Ceramics, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL
Psychosomatic, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
Possibility Made Real, Drawing and Clay, 12.26 Gallery, Dallas, TX
2020
Total Collapse: Clay in the Contemporary Past, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Have To Hold, LAUNCH LA, Los Angeles, CA
2019
Total Collapse: Clay in the Contemporary Past, The Rubin Arts Center at the University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
2018
I Love to Ride My Bicycle, San Diego State University Downtown Gallery, San Diego, CA
The Incongruous Body, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA
Conceptual Craft II, DENK Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Melting Point: Movements in Contemporary Clay, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2017
Interstitial, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA
2016
Visions and Revisions: Renwick Invitational 2016, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
The Treachery of Objects, Fine Arts Center Gallery at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2015
Walkers: Hollywood Afterlives in Art and Artifact, Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, NY
2013
Reverberation, Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA
2012
Our Cups Runneth Over, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
The Stumbling Present: Ruins in Contemporary Art, UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
Under the Table, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Fort Worth, TX
Fragile, Seattle Design Center, Seattle, WA
2011
Untitled (12 TH Istanbul Biennial), Antrepo 3 & 5, Meclis-I Mebusan Caddesi, Liman Isletmeleri Sahasi, Istanbul, Turkey
Overthrown: Clay Without Limits, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Breakdown, Chapman University, Guggenheim Gallery, Orange, CA
Exposed, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA
2010
Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
Underground Pop, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Even Better Than the Real Thing; The Art of the Uncanny, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
The End of The World, Biola University Art Gallery, La Mirada, CA
2009
Wet and Letherhard, Larimore Projects, Seattle, WA
Wide Angle 3: Discovered / Undiscovered, The Smog Shoppe and The University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA
An Expanded Field of Possibilities, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
2008
At The Brewery Project, 1993 – 2007: The Finale, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
LA Now, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, NV
The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, Kent and Vicky Logan Galleries, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2007
Unmonumental: The object in the 21st Century, The New Museum, New York, NY
Sculptors’ Drawings: Ideas, Studies, Sketches, Proposals, and More, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Hammer Contemporary Collection: Part II, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Red Eye: LA Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
2006
RAW, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN
2005
The 3RD World Ceramic Biennale: Trans-Ceramic-Art: Beyond Medium, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Icheon, South Korea
Thing: New Sculpture from Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
61st Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
2004
Unscenery, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Now Here, The Brewery Project, Los Angeles, CA
Because the EARTH IS 1/3 DIRT, Colorado University Art Museum & The Colorado Collection, Boulder, CO
Play Pause, SCA Gallery, Pomona, CA
2003
Unscenery, Cypress College Art Gallery, Cypress, CA
2002
Faculty Biennial: Who Inspired You?, University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA
The Body::Minded Problem in the 21ST Century, Max L. Gatov Gallery, Long Beach, CA
New Territory, Belger Art District, Kansas City, MO
2001
To Be Continued, Cerritos College Art Gallery, Cerritos, CA
Menagerie at NCECA 2001, Gaston College Galleries, Dallas, NC
Menagerie: Animal Imagery in Contemporary Ceramics, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, FL
2000
Long Beach 2000, Faculty Biennial, University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA
Menagerie, Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA
1999
Common Threads, Diane Nelson Fine Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
1998
Five Sculptors / Figurative Work, Diane Nelson Fine Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
International Contemporary Ceramics: From the Igal and Diane Silber Collection, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
1997
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY
COLLECTIONS
Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Dean Valentine
Diane and Igal Silber
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Lowell and Lucille Morgin
Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, CA
Rubell Family Collection
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
