ART HISTORY FESTIVAL 2023 – West Midlands

Ikon presents a major solo exhibition by British artist Mali Morris. Calling includes nearly 30 works from the last 25 years and documents a notable change in Morris’ artistic practice from the late 1990s when she considered new painterly directions. Morris’s first solo exhibition was held at Ikon Gallery, John Bright Street, in 1979 and she now returns to Ikon, Brindleyplace, in 2023 to transform the gallery’s spaces into fields of colour and light.

Mali Morris has been exploring the possibilities of abstract painting for over 50 years. Her recent paintings create visual arenas, where colour moves through space and space moves through colour. Glowing circles call to each other through painted structures that are both fluid and geometric. Opacity and translucency are important, as are the ways the touch of a brush or other implements can open up a painting’s virtual depth. Freedom, ease, pleasure and wit co-exist with rigour and decisiveness.