Jim Morris's work explores how dynamic real-world events can be visualized to
capture states of transformation, volatility, and turbulence. He focuses on themes of power and flux as he searches print and online sources for examples of the myriad ways in which information is visualized to communicate the dynamism of events - such as the dynamic systems of cities, border spaces and natural processes such as cellular growth and decay. Archaic and modern charts, maps, diagrams, architectural plans, photographs from satellites, surveillance feeds, and medical records all give visual form to ideas and data. These visualizations provide a bridge for understanding select aspects of our world, which are often imperceptible to us, due to the scale or duration of the event being examined. Morris's drawings manipulate the images we already know by reorganizing and re-presenting the visual information to draw out and amplify qualities that he sees concealed within the graphics and the cognitive assumptions he is interrogating.
Jim Morris received his MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has received fellowships that include a summer Fulbright to Malaysia and Singapore, a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, NEA/Mid Atlantic Artists Fellowship, the George Sugarman Foundation, and a fellowship from the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art in North Carolina. Jim has participated in artist residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University, The Triangle Arts International Workshop in NYC, Sculpture Space, and the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center Print Studio. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Buffalo Art Studio, the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Draper Gallery, Gallery Q in Rochester, NY; and Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey. He currently lives in western Massachusetts and maintains a studio in Holyoke, Massachusetts.