Paintings by Lily Morris

“In this series I have begun making work that lives in conversation with art history, as well as my own personal history. The scale of some of the works in the series is reminiscent of large royal allegory paintings used to depict virtuous human behavior. Think ‘Primavera’ by Botticelli. For me the scale is important because I see my paintings as a dance of failures, hope, beauty, and chaos—altogether something more human than Herculean and virtuous."

These works illustrate elements, both literal and metaphoric, masterfully combined with nautical themes familiar on both the Vineyard and at her current home base along the Hudson River. As with all of Lily’s paintings, dramatic and tempestuous elements are transformed into poetic brushstrokes that invite introspection.

"Creating paintings that make room for complex and turbulent elements has always been a powerful and cathartic experience for me. I have been interested in the Dutch nautical painters' father and son, Willem van de Velde the younger and elder, for their storm-scapes and obsessive detail. The storm is the perfect metaphor for life’s journey. A storm is a rite of passage, an unavoidable encounter with one’s capacity for resilience and fluidity."

Lily Morris, born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, attended Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, in 2007 and graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009.

Lily’s work has been featured in the Netflix original film Bird Box, Playboy Magazine, and in both HBO series “The Undoing” and “The Perfect Couple.”

Her solo shows include:
Lily Morris: Witchcraft at mtn space gallery in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Aeria Signum at Thompson Giroux Gallery in Chatham, NY
American Dream at A Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard

Her most recent work is in the Urbes, Contemporary Landscapes exhibition at the European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, Spain.

She currently lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.

See current exhibition.