Paradigm Shift by Margaret Morrison

June 8 - September 1, 2023

In 2017, Professor Margaret Morrison proposed a Faculty Research Grant to UGA’s Willson Center for the project, Contemporary Examination of Caravaggio’s Dramatic Staging and Lighting - A Collaboration between Painting and Theatre.   This project resulted in a series of paintings investigating Caravaggio’s use of theatrical light.  Morrison and her collaborator, Professor Anthony Marotta of the UGA Department of Theatre and Film Studies, explored various methods of stage choreography for the purpose of photographing and collecting reference images.  Marotta and Morrison discussed how to include the theater students in the project and in response; Morrison created a script for Marotta and his students.   This resulted in an extemporaneous stage performance directed by Marotta and documented by photographer, Gabrielle Rosenthal.  The resulting collaboration provided Margaret Morrison with exceptional reference material for this new body of work entitled, Paradigm Shift.  This suite of seven large oil paintings on canvas describes various stages of enlightenment from an awakening to transcendence.

Artist Event: August 24, 6:00 pm.  

About the artist:

Margaret Morrison received her MFA from the University of Utah in 1988. She has exhibited in museums and institutions around the world such as the Maria V. Howard Art Museum in Rocky Mount, North Carolina; the Kimmel Center at New York University in New York City; the Shelburne Museum of Art in Shelburne, Vermont; the Rockefeller Museum and Art Center in New York; the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana; and the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia; the Lyndon House Art Center in Athens, Georgia; and Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  Morrison’s recent solo exhibition entitled, Margaret Morrison: Home, was on display at the Woodward Gallery in New York City from October – December 2020.   

In 2012, Morrison was invited by the Director of the Department of State Art in Embassies Program to display her painting, “Cat’s Eyes” in the Ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv. For three years, Morrison’s large-scale oil painting on canvas served as the backdrop for visiting dignitaries from all over the world; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Prime Minister Shimon Perez, and US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.

Morrison has also had numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York City and has been featured in the New York Times, ARTnews, Art & Antiques, M Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Florida Design, Juxtapoz, Aesthetica Magazine International, Pinch Magazine, Agave Magazine, WideWalls and the Georgia Review. Most recently, Keramikos was featured in the New York Times Style Magazine article, I’ll Have What She’s Having,” by Priya Krishna, November 13, 2019.

Morrison has been represented by Woodward Gallery since 1995 and her work can be found in many public and private collections around the world.

Pictured Above: Right Limbo, Left, Followers

All exhibitions are free of charge and open to the public.  Exhibitions are on view during regular gallery hours Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.   Children must be accompanied by an adult.