Marc Selwyn Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent work by Kristen Morgin.  

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. Toys, books, comics and other objects are rendered true to scale and recall the artist’s childhood, while corroding surfaces evoke mortality, decay and the passage of time. Marionettes and puppets portray abandonment and loneliness. Reduced to strung together pieces mixed with sculpted beads, wood fragments and mismatched limbs, the figure’s eyes fixate on the viewer, a toy asking not to be forgotten.    

Morgin looks to the traditions of collage and assemblage for inspiration. Eccentric narratives and playful juxtapositions come together to form new objects with unexpected connotations. In Popeye with Kim Novak, 2017, the cartoon protagonist coyly turns away from an alluring starlet. Punchy painted stickers and Popeye’s primary colored legs contrast with the black and white tiger pattern on which Novak sprawls. In another work, Composition with Domestic Dispute and Small Children, 2017, a young boy and girl from a children’s book illustration gaze at an adult couple engaged in an ominous romantic melodrama. Tromp l’oeil wood, cardboard and worn edges simultaneously deceive, fascinate and lure the viewer into a tension laden scene. 

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.