Born: 1967

Hometown: United Kingdom

Lives and Works: New York, NY and London, England

Education: BA, Brown University, Providence, RI, 1989
Jesus College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, 1988

About The Artist

Sarah Morris is a painter and filmmaker who finds inspiration from architectural landscapes of the world’s major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Beijing. An observer of the vibrations and dynamism unique to each urban center, Morris’ work is highly concerned with exploring the relationship between conceptual signs and physical signifiers.

After receiving a degree in Philosophy and Semiotics from Brown University in 1989, she started her career in creating graphic paintings that evoke the format and language of newspapers and popular advertisements. In the mid 1990s, she began to explore urban architectural imagery in her paintings and films, a subject matter that remains her present interest.Through a bold usage of color and blunt geometric forms, Morris’ best-known paintings recall the stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals, or the iconoclastic patterns of Islamic mosques. They are complex images that speak to the increasingly disorienting experience of modern urban existence.

Her films focus on deconstructing the major architectural elements of a city with the intention of revealing its true character. For example, in Beijing (2008), Morris explores the city’s reinvention and renewal through close examination of the construction and implementation of the Olympic complex. Additionally, she has created numerous site specific works in the United States and abroad including a commission for the Public Art Fund entitled Robert Towne, which expands 20,000-square-feet across the ceiling of the Lever House building in Manhattan.

Galleries

Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, NY

White Cube, London, England

Select Permanent Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

Berardo Collection, Sintra, Portugal

British Council, London, England

Celebrity Cruises GTS Millenium

Centre d’Art Contemporain, Le Consortium, Dijon, France

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece

Essl Foundation, Vienna, Austria

Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy

Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain de Bourgogne, France

Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain, Poitou-Charentes, France

F.R.A.C. Bourgone, France

F.R.A.C. Poitou-Charentes, France

Galerie fur Zeitgenossiche Kunst, Leipzig, Germany

Government Art Collection, London, England

Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany

Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany

La Colección Jumex, Ecatepec de Morelos, Mexico

Le Consortium, Dijon, France

Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany

Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL

Mora Foundation, London, England

Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Paine Webber Collection, New York, NY

Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA

Saatchi Collection, London, England

Sammlung DaimlerChrysler, Berlin, Germany

Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany

Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin, Germany

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tate Modern, London, England

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England