Julia Morison
{{Short description|New Zealand artist (born 1952)}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Julia Morison
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|ONZM|size=100%}}
| image = Julia Morison ONZM (cropped).jpg
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| birth_name = Julia Morison
| birth_date = 1952
| birth_place = Pahiatua, New Zealand
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| field = Painting, sculpture, photography, installation art
| training = Wellington Polytechnic School of Design at Massey University;School of Fine Arts at University of Canterbury
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| awards = Laureate Award Arts Foundation of New Zealand
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| website = http://juliamorison.nz/
}}
Julia Morison {{post-nominals|country=NZL|ONZM|size=85%}} (born 1952) is a New Zealand artist working across a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, photography, installation and recently ceramics.{{cite web|title=Morison, Julia|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artist/10686/|website=Find NZ Artists|access-date=18 March 2015}}
Education
Morison completed a Diploma in Graphic Design from Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, Massey University in 1972. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1975.{{cite web|title=Julia Morison|url=http://www.thearts.co.nz/artist_page.php&aid=41&type=bio|website=Arts Foundation of New Zealand|access-date=18 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150127054415/https://www.thearts.co.nz/artist_page.php%26aid%3D41%26type%3Dbio|archive-date=27 January 2015}}
Career
Morison was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 1988 and undertook the Moët & Chandon contemporary art residency in Avize, France in 1990. After the year long residency she remained in France for ten years.
In 1999 Morison became Senior Lecturer in Painting at the University of Canterbury, a position she held until 2007.
Morison received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand in 2005.
A major survey exhibition on Morison's work, A loop around a loop: Julia Morison was organised by the Christchurch Art Gallery and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2006, and curated by Felicity Milburn and Justin Paton.{{cite web|title=A loop around a loop: Julia Morison|url=http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/julia-morison-a-loop-around-a-loop/|website=Christchurch Art Gallery}}
In 2012 Morison was inducted into the Massey University College of Creative Arts' Hall of Fame.{{cite web|title=Hall of Fame Inductees – Julia Morison|url=http://creative.massey.ac.nz/about/hall-of-fame/2012-inductees/julia-morison/|website=Massey University College of Creative Arts|access-date=18 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114192218/http://creative.massey.ac.nz/about/hall-of-fame/2012-inductees/julia-morison/|archive-date=14 January 2015|url-status=dead}} In the same year her exhibition Meet me on the other side showed at Christchurch Art Gallery and City Gallery Wellington.{{cite web|title=Meet me on the other side|url=http://www.citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/meet-me-other-side-julia-morison|website=City Gallery Wellington|access-date=18 March 2015}}
In 2013 her public sculpture Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers was installed in central Christchurch as part of the SCAPE public art project. A response to the devastating Christchurch earthquakes, the work is designed to be a permanent but relocatable feature of the city.{{cite web|title=Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers|url=http://scapebiennial.org.nz/tree-houses-for-swamp-dwellers|website=SCAPE|access-date=18 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402151154/http://scapebiennial.org.nz/tree-houses-for-swamp-dwellers|archive-date=2 April 2015}}
In the 2018 New Year Honours, Morison was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to visual arts.{{cite web | url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2018 | title=New Year honours list 2018|date=30 December 2017| publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | access-date=4 January 2018}}
Work
File:Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers by Julia Morison, Christchurch, New Zealand 09.jpg in Christchurch|left|380x380px]]
Morison's early work (from the time she finished art school) concentrated on 'severely formalist' paintings.{{cite web|last1=Pitts|first1=Priscilla|title=A Conversation with Julia Morison|url=http://www.eyecontactsite.com/2015/07/a-conversation-with-julia-morison|website=EyeContact|access-date=2 August 2015|date=20 July 2015}} After taking a break from exhibiting, in the mid 1980s Morison returned with a series of complex and ambitious works which became signatures in her career. Large multi-part works such as Vademecum (1986) and Golem (1987) are based on a system Morison created based on the number 10, referencing the Sefirothic Tree of Kabbalah and using ten 'logos' and ten key materials ('transparency', gold, silver, 'iridescence', lead, mercury or mercuric-oxide, clay, ash, blood, excrement), in various combinations. These systems continue to inform much of the artist's work.{{cite web|last1=Hurrell|first1=John|title=Julia Morison|url=http://www.realartroadshow.co.nz/essays/Morison%20Julia.pdf|website=Real Art Roadshow|access-date=2 August 2015}} This system has informed a great many of her paintings and installation works, and she continues to work with replicating forms (like the Celtic knot) and organising principles (like Victorian myriorama).{{cite web|title=Many parts to this puzzle|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/lifestyle-entertainment/arts/4459415/Many-parts-to-this-puzzle|website=Nelson Mail|access-date=2 August 2015|date=15 December 2010}}
In 1997 Morison collaborated with fashion designer Martin Grant on Material evidence: 100-headless woman , a series of ten dresses, each three metres high and each based on a specific material, such as gold, silver, lead, excrement, blood, pearl, and clay.{{cite web|title=Material Evidence: 100 Headless Woman|url=http://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/material-evidence-100-headless-woman|website=City Gallery Wellington|access-date=2 August 2015}}
After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake Morison could not continue painting and instead began making sculptural works, using plaster, clay, the liquefaction sediment from the earthquake and found objects. Recently she has been working on a major new series of porcelain and stoneware ceramic head forms, called Headcases. She has currently produced about 30 works from an intended series of 100.{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Allan|title=Julia Morison's Headcases|url=http://eyecontactsite.com/2015/04/julia-morrinsville-headcase|website=EyeContact|access-date=2 August 2015|date=9 April 2015}}
Collections
Morison's work in held in many New Zealand public gallery collections, including Christchurch Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.{{cite web|title=Julia Morison|url=http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Person/1602|website=Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa}}{{cite web|title=Julia Morison|url=http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artists/1236/julia-morison|website=Auckland Art Gallery|access-date=18 March 2015}}{{cite web|title=Julia Morison|url=http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/browse/?artist=896|website=Christchurch Art Gallery|access-date=18 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150318231408/http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/browse/?artist=896|archive-date=18 March 2015}}
Reviews
{{Expand list|date=March 2015}}
- Gina Irish, 'My Place: Julia Morison', Art New Zealand, no 109, Summer 2003–2004{{cite web|last1=Irish|first1=Gina|title=My Place: Julia Morison|url=http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue109/exhibitions109ch.htm|website=Art New Zealand|access-date=18 March 2015}}
- John Hurrell, 'Morison Sculpture in Auckland', EyeContact, 29 November 2011{{cite web|last1=Hurrell|first1=John|title=Morison Sculpture in Auckland|url=http://eyecontactsite.com/2011/11/morison-sculpture-in-auckland|website=EyeContact}}
- Creon Upton, 'Morison's Plaster Wall Sculptures', EyeContact, 22 September 2013{{cite web|last1=Upton|first1=Creon|title=Morison's Plaster Wall Sculptures|url=http://eyecontactsite.com/2013/09/m|website=EyeContact|access-date=18 March 2015}}
- Andrew Paul Wood, 'Morison Tree Houses in Christchurch', EyeContact, 12 October 2013{{cite web|last1=Wood|first1=Andrew Paul|title=Morison Tree Houses in Christchurch|url=http://eyecontactsite.com/2013/10/julia-morison-tree-houses-in-christchurch|website=EyeContact|access-date=18 March 2015}}
- Mark Amery, 'Short Shrift', The Big Idea, 8 October 2014{{cite web|last1=Amery|first1=Mark|title=Short Shrift|url=http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/news/columns/mark-amery-visual-arts/2014/oct/149001-short-shrift|website=The Big Idea|access-date=18 March 2015}}
- Allan Smith, 'Julia Morison's Headcases', EyeContact, 9 April 2015
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Frances Hodgkins Fellowship}}
{{Arts Foundation Laureate Award}}
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Category:Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni
Category:New Zealand women painters
Category:New Zealand ceramicists
Category:New Zealand women ceramicists
Category:New Zealand women sculptors
Category:New Zealand sculptors
Category:New Zealand photographers