360 interactive virtual tour of KESHA BRUCE’s solo “We Can Birth Worlds”

Deeply inspired by her spiritual practice and surroundings in the Arizona desert, Kesha Bruce creates reflective and rich artworks intended to be visual landscapes to dream into in her solo exhibition We Can Birth Worlds.

 

 

About We Can Birth Worlds
Kesha Bruce’s work explores the complex connections between history, personal mythology, and magical-spiritual belief in the African diaspora. Her latest work is concerned primarily with exploring the ways vibrant color and abstract symbols can not only trigger powerful emotion but begin to conjure narratives.

Inspired by the belief that hand-made objects can be imbued with the spiritual energy and the intention of the maker, Kesha Bruce employs a labor-intensive creative process of dying, ripping, knotting and the cutting away of fabric to create each painting. The resulting pieced, patched, and assembled surfaces use repetition and pattern to hint at dream languages or perhaps hidden sacred texts.

A direct outgrowth of her daily spiritual practice, these new works are an effort to translate the expansiveness of the artist’s inner joy and reclamation of freedom into a visual language.
With We Can Birth Worlds, Kesha Bruce aims to create visual landscapes to dream into. Landscapes for present and future Black joy, possibility, and liberation.

 

 

 

About KESHA BRUCE

Born and raised in Iowa, she completed a BFA from the University of Iowa before earning an MFA in painting from Hunter College in New York City.
Kesha Bruce has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), The Vermont Studio Center, The CAMAC Foundation, and the Puffin Foundation.
Her work is included in the collections of The Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture (14 pieces), The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, The University of Iowa Women’s Center, The En Foco Photography Collection, and MOMA’s Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection.

Represented since 2011, We Can Birth Worlds is her seventh solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art.

Available Artwork by KESHA BRUCE

 

About Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African Diaspora.

Morton Fine Art
52 O St NW #302
Washington, DC 20001

Wed – Sat 12pm-5pm
Sun-Tues by appointment

**Hours are currently suspended to prevent further community spread of COVID-19. Virtual tours and detail images and video available upon request. We are still conducting business in a different and safe way.**

 

 

KATHERINE HATTAM’s artwork featured in the Brisbane Times

 

 

Old books and riotous colour collide as Katherine Hattam’s art makes playful statements

By John McDonald

March 20, 2020 — 7.46pm

Katherine Hattam. Lives: Thornbury, Melbourne. Age: 69. Represented by: Arthouse Gallery, Sydney; Daine Singer Gallery, Melbourne

(And Morton Fine Art, Washington, DC, USA)

The black swan of trespass, by Katherine Hattam; oil on linen, 217cm x 155cm (framed), $17,500; Artwork Photograph by Clare Rae.CREDIT:

Her thing. Colourful paintings incorporating collage and considerable word-play.

Our take. Katherine Hattam has spent her life in and around the Melbourne art scene. Her father, Hal Hattam, was the art world’s obstetrician of choice and a talented amateur painter. Katherine has been exhibiting regularly since the late 1980s, and lately her son, William MacKinnon, has made a name for himself as an artist.

In The Landscape of Language, Hattam’s third solo exhibition at Arthouse, she continues to use old paperbacks as collage in her larger paintings. The book titles invite us to look for meanings that may or may not exist, beyond whatever memories they conjure up in the artist’s mind. Hattam favours old Penguins that would have disintegrated by now anyway.

In terms of colour, and the riotous Australiana that runs through these canvases, this is one of her boldest outings. Hattam’s swans may be black but her kangaroos can be bright blue or pink.

Her subjects range from domestic still lifes to allegorical landscapes. On the way, she pauses to consider the attempts by the First Fleet’s William Dawes to learn the Eora language; environmental issues (symbolised by Hokusai’s menacing wave); and a favourite picture by American master Philip Guston.

In a painting called Pantheon (1973), Guston wrote a list of the artists he most revered. Hattam has undertaken a feminist revision, replacing Guston’s all-male list with a female cast. As statements go, it’s more playful than strident.

Can I afford it? For a well-established artist, Hattam’s prices are very affordable. The most expensive picture in this exhibition is the oil painting, The black swan of trespass (pictured above, 217cm x 155cm), at $17,500. This would equal her existing record price. There are 12 works selling for the low price of $2200. This includes small oil paintings such as Pink kangaroo, Swans dream phthalo, and The friendship garden (each 43cm x 31cm).

Where can I have a squiz? Arthouse Gallery, 66 McLachlan Avenue, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney,
until March 28; arthousegallery.com.au.

 

AND stateside at Morton Fine Art, 52 O St NW #302, Washington, DC USA.

Click HERE to view available artwork by KATHERINE HATTAM.

 

 

 

Introducing virtual exhibition tours as Morton Fine Art and Gallery B suspend daily hours

Visit Morton Fine Art’s YouTube Channel for virtual tours of our solo exhibition of Kesha Bruce’s “We Can Birth Worlds” at Morton Fine Art in DC and our group exhibition at Gallery B in Bethesda. We are still conducting business, in a new way.

Visit our Website

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After much consideration, and out of concern for the health and welfare of all our community, Morton Fine Art has concluded that it is necessary to suspend daily open hours at both Morton Fine Art in DC and our group exhibition at Gallery B in Bethesda, effective immediately. We instead encourage virtual tours from Morton Fine Art’s YouTube channel. All works are available for acquisition and additional details can be requested by emailing the gallery at mortonfineart@gmail.com or calling or texting (202) 628-2787. We are still conducting business, in a new way. We very much appreciate your patience and understanding as we all negotiate this unprecedented situation. Please continue to follow the guidance of the CDC and public health officials. We hope that our earnest actions will help contribute to a better health outcome for our entire community. Best always, Amy and Julia

Virtual Tour of KESHA BRUCE’s solo exhibition “We Can Birth Worlds” at Morton Fine Art in DC

Available Artwork by KESHA BRUCE Contact the gallery for an accompanying price list and additional details.

Virtual Tour #1 of Morton Fine Art & *a pop-up project at Gallery B in Bethesda

Virtual Tour #2 of Morton Fine Art & *a pop-up project at Gallery B in Bethesda

Virtual Tour #3 of Morton Fine Art & *a pop-up project at Gallery B in Bethesda

Morton Fine Art Website Contact the gallery for an accompanying artwork pricing and artist information.

About Morton Fine Art and *a pop-up project Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African Diaspora. Redefining the traditional gallery model, Morton Fine Art (MFA) enhances a single gallery space with two locations: MFA’s permanent fine art gallery space and *a pop-up project, a temporary mobile art gallery of curated group shows. Morton Fine Art 52 O St NW #302 Washington, DC 20001 Updated hours to be determined.

ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY’s print “Quiet Desperation” currently on view at Katzen Arts Center at American University.

ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY’s print “Quiet Desperation” currently on view at Katzen Arts Center at American University.

Grouping of artwork in Katzen Art Center’s exhibition “Good Form, Decorum, and in the Manner: Portraits from the Collections of the Washington Print Club Members” including ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY’s wood engraving, “Quiet Desperation”.

Photo credit: Katzen Arts Center

ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY’s wood engraving “Quiet Desperation”

Courtesy of the Artist and Morton Fine Art

 

 

“Good Form, Decorum, and in the Manner: Portraits from the Collections of the Washington Print Club Members” features works ranging from the early masters of printmaking to contemporary artists. These prints question what it means to capture a person’s likeness across time and cultures.⁠

 

About  Katzen Arts Center:

Housed in the dynamic and multidisciplinary Katzen Arts Center, the American University Museum builds its programming on the strengths of a great college and great university. We focus on international art because American University has a global commitment. We show political art because the university is committed to human rights, social justice, and political engagement. We support the artists in our community because the university takes an active and responsible role in the formation of our contemporary art and culture.

We present exhibitions that mirror American University’s aspiration to be the premier Washington-based, global university. Our programming puts the best art of our region in a national and international context. Our collections enable us to present the art history of Washington, while our Kunsthalle attitude brings the most provocative art of our time to our place.

Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016

Tuesday – Sunday from 11am-4pm

Available artwork by ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY

 

 

Morton Fine Art celebrates 10 years of artist partnerships and placing artwork!

THANK YOU to all of our wonderful partner artists, colleagues and collectors who have shared in MFA and *a pop-up project’s journey over the last decade. It’s wonderful to celebrate 10 years together!

 

 

From our first *a pop-up project by Morton Fine Art on E St NW in Penn Quarter in 2010 – WE APPRECIATE YOU!

 

To nearly 9 years on Florida Ave NW in Adams Morgan, 2010-2018, WE APPRECIATE YOU!

 

 

 

 

To our current home at 52 O St NW in NoMA, 2018 onward – WE APPRECIATE YOU!

Cheers to many more years together at Morton Fine Art

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Celebrating 10 years of placing exceptional contemporary art in global private and public collections.

Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African Diaspora.

Morton Fine Art Location: 52 O St. NW #302, Washington, DC 20001

Hours: Weds-Sat: 12pm – 5pm; Sun – Tues: by appointment

Contact: (202) 628-2787, mortonfineart@gmail.com

KATHERINE TZU-LAN MANN’s nature based mural at Penn State

 

 

Campus

An inside look at the new mural in the HUB-Robeson Center

• Ashley Hayford | The Daily Collegian
• Jan 13, 2020

Buy Now

Katherine Mann’s mural “Small Planet” in the HUB-Robeson Center on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020.

Lindsey Toomer

The HUB-Robeson Center will look more colorful this semester as the HUB Galleries commissioned Katherine Mann to create a new mural for the space.

Mann, an independent artist and Washington, D.C. local, prepared a few potential pieces for selection for the HUB’s newest mural. A work entitled “Small Planet” was chosen, and she worked on the collage elements of the piece throughout the semester in her studio.

“This piece was chosen, I think, because it combined free floating, verdant and textured painting technique with fluid dynamics, maximalism and an interest in the local landscape,” Mann said via email. “Each of the flowers, leaves or branches in the mural is a depiction of a plant or tree that is endemic to Pennsylvania and the region directly around State College.”

Plants scattered throughout the mural include magnolias, fringe trees, tupelos, redbuds, dogwoods and maple leaves, along with other twigs and flowers native to Central Pennsylvania.

“I wanted to take details from the daily scenery of the region – mostly, tree leaves – and use them to populate a fantastic, immersive and imaginary world,” Mann said.

Along with paying attention to the State College landscape, Mann said the mural holds personal significance to her.

“The mural represents, to me, a joyful celebration of the mess of matter that make up the world around us,” Mann said. “The local maple tree on the meridian in the middle of the street might not be given a second glance, but recontextualized into this kaleidoscopic landscape it becomes alien, invites a new appreciation.”

Installed during the final week of the fall 2019 semester, Mann signed the mural with 15 minutes left to spare before the HUB closed for holiday break.

Curator of HUB-Robeson Galleries Lindsey Landfried said she hopes the piece not only touches the Penn State community, but those who visit, as well.

Katherine Mann’s mural “Small Planet” in the HUB-Robeson Center on Sunday, Jan. 12.

Lindsey Toomer

“The HUB-Robeson Center commissioned this work by Katherine Mann to share high quality contemporary art with our students in the spaces they work and engage in during their Penn State experience,” Landfried said via email. “This artwork enriches the University community and its visitors by deepening a sense of place and the experience of space, stimulating viewer curiosity and wellness and ensuring that art engages the educational, cultural and historical dimensions of our environments.”

Landfried praised the mural for being “rich, complex and dynamically and visually arresting” and hopes each student resonates with artwork in their own way.

“We anticipate that students will each have their own response to its physical presence and transformative potential,” Landfried said. “The HUB-Robeson Center is a cultural destination at Penn State, and we activate the arts here in the Union to address today’s complex questions and serve local and global communities through access to the arts.”

Campus Arts Associate Tamryn McDermott helped Mann carefully install and hammer the mural, alongside HUB Galleries staff and student interns.

“Katherine was wonderful to work with,” McDermott said via email. “While we nailed, Katherine added more layers of paper and paint to the mural to integrate her work into the architecture and surrounding space.”

According to McDermott, students would stop by the mural throughout finals week to watch the installation process and ask about the piece. Students thought it added energy to the space.

“One student told us how grateful she was that we were installing the mural for the students to enjoy,” McDermott said. “Another brought up something she learned in one of her psychology classes. She said she learned that plants help to increase productivity.”

McDermott added that the HUB team is looking forward to the student body “seeing new things within the dense and layered surface over time” and enjoying the mural.

 

Available Artwork by KATHERINE TZU-LAN MANN

 

Contact the gallery for artwork and commissions.

Morton Fine Art

52 O St NW, #302

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 628-2787

mortonfineart@gmail.com

http://www.mortonfineart.com

Creating a shared family value in collecting art

Salon style wall of contemporary art at Morton Fine Art, Washington, DC

 

As an art collector, you invest time, energy and money in a collection which fits both your aesthetic and interests. Oftentimes you develop strong relationships with galleries, auction houses and sometimes the artists themselves. How do you translate your passion for your collection into a shared family value?

A few questions to ask yourself:

What reflected in your art collection is most relevant to your family members?

Does your collection mirror family values or non literal family narratives or concepts?

What art on your walls most influences you?

What art on your walls most inspires your respective family members?

Do you have family discussions about art?

Do you visit art institutions and galleries with your family?

Have you shared the influences which have lead to you collect as you do?

 

Stein collection (detail), Paris

 

Here is a wonderful example of family legacy created by a shared passion for art collecting:

Did you know that the legendary American writer and art collector Gertrude Stein actively and profusely collected art with her brothers Leo and Michael and her sister-in-law Sarah?  In fact, the family was integral in the rise of modern art in western Europe and America including early acquisitions of Cezanne, Gauguin, Renoir, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso – much of the art which now fill the world’s museums. In the early 1900’s Henry McBride (the critic for the New York Sun) commented that Stein “collected geniuses rather than masterpieces. She recognized them a long way off”.

Collectors, that’s some inspiration for today!

 

Morton Fine Art

52 O St NW #302

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 628-2787

www.mortonfineart.com

mortonfineart@gmail.com