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| See his work Gallery 1 Gallery 2 Gallery3 Return to Microflight | |||||||||||||||||
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Below is an artical written by Peta Stavelli from the Waiheke Gulf News about her visit to Mike Morgan's studio. This week I continue my visits to the studios of artists with a visit to Mike Morgan's studio at Rocky Bay. |
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| His paintings also hang on the walls of such luminaries as the band U2 who bought all five of the remaining works at an exhibitiona and commissioned another. Around midday I drove along Fairview Crescent, slowed down around 43 and looked out for 55 on the left. I found the number, parked the car and noted that there was a place to hang a sign but there was no sign. Nothing felt right. I checked the number in my notebook and matched it with the street number. That at least was right, so I continued down the gravel path through a forest, so neat it seemed to have been freshly manicured. A rope rail and lights had been thoughtfully provided, a well constructed bridge crossed a small stream,. I could see a small wooden box up ahead on a tree. I hoped this would give me an indication that I was on the right path. As I drew parallel to the box, a gnome whistled at me. Cheeky bugger I thought. A little further on I could see a dwelling and hear running water. As I passed the pond a huge plastic frog croaked at me. Ah! I thought, I am in the right place. This is the paradoxical wit and personality of Mike Morgan. Six Gnomes scattered around a series of six ponds, complete with pumps and waterfalls and home to around 100 fish. A tiny (but perfectly formed) cottage containing over 150 wild, witty and wacky works of art....everything in order. The CD's meticulously arranged, the stereo has a dust cover, every book on the shelf stands upright....I am stunned. |
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| Here is a man who looks like a biker and lives like a monk. On one wall there is a series of religious paintings. You would expect them to have names like The Cruci-Fiction, if they didn't share the wall with other religious bits and pieces, platters and religious memorabilia. You detect a note of underlying seriousness about this topic. Mike reads the bible for inspiration. I look around and find what looks like another series - scantily clad women. Magnificent bottoms, beautiful breasts. The Twins Admire the Obelisk depicts two such perfect bottoms as "the twins" look towards One Tree Hill. |
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| This is the naive surrealism of Mike Morgan at its best. There is always a humorous twist. Mike does commissioned works and received another just as I arrived. I asked him how he went about a commissioned work and he told me that he starts with a list of instructions from the people for whom the work is destined and then adds some words of his own. The result is a creative partnership and a work which depicts milestones, places, events and the occupations of the recipients, a story of their lives embellished with creative genius. Mike started painting in the seventies, producing about ten paintings in that decade. In the eighties it was much the same until Mike left his job as a steel worker in 1989 then he was able to spend more time painting. But it was not until he moved to Surfdale in 1991 and Rocky Bay two years later that he started to paint full-time. Since then he has completed about 700 paintings...sometimes painting for up to 14 hours at a time, less in Summer than in Winter. I asked Mike what he did for recreation. Clearly a man with that prodigious outpouring of creative works must have a reclusive temperament, I thought. But no, this humble man who claims his talent fluctuates and who lives alone, close to the natural world and in tune with the seasons, also likes to lair up in the city on a Friday night, visit friends and have a few drinks. Last week he went to Cirque De Soleil and says that he is still dreaming abou it. Vivid dreams, colourful surreal creatures, grotesqueries. It sounds like the work of Mike Morgan. |
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| Mike's Previous Exhibitions | |||||||||||||||||
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| 1982 Group Show -Closet Gallery 1983 Solo Exhibition of oil paintings - Basement Gallery 1984 Group Show - Basement Gallery 1985 "Auckland Oils" Kitchener Gallery 1985 Exhibition of oil paintings "Last and First Cafe" 1986 "Faces" Exhibition - Kitchener Gallery 1989 Birkenhead Award Finals - received prize for "North Shore Theme" |
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| 1989 "Once Upon a Tree Hill" Solo Exhibition, Outreach Gallery 1990 Manart Group Exhibition, Gallery 191 1991 Auckland Children's Hospital Exhibition, Air New Zealand Foyer, Aotea Centre, Auckland 1991 "Reverie' Exhibition, Rita Webster Galleries, Parnell, Auckland 1991 Group Exhibition, Artworks, Waiheke Island 1991 Ginalist in Telecom Art Award 1992 Solo Exhibition, Rita Webster Galleries, Parnell, Auckland 1991 "Across the water" Group exhibition, Howick, Auckland 1993 'Around the Table" Series exhibition, Ponsonby Galleries, Ponsonby, Auckland 1993 "Retrospective" Solo Exhibition, Ponsonby galleries, Ponsonby, Auckland 1994 "Under the Umbrella" group exhibition, Art by the Sea Gallery, Devonport, Auckland |
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| 1994 Solo Exhibition, "Art at Expo" Auckland 1994 "Nature's Enchantment" Anora Gallery, Soho, New York 1995 "Dirersions" Solo Exhibition Art by the Sea Gallery, Devonport, Auckland 1995 "The Creative Eye" Groupl show, Agora Gallery, Soho, New York 1995 "Tripping the light Fantastic" group show, Artworks, Waiheke Island 1996 "Perrennial Offerings" Exhibition, Waiheke Community Art Gallery 1996 "Outsider Art" groupl show, Oedipus Rex gallery 1996 "Off the ledge" A.S.A. Gallery 1997 "The second coming" Exhibition, Waiheke Community ARt Gallery 1997 Finalist, Telecom Art Awards 1997 Finalist, Waiheke Art Award 1997 Jazz Poster selected for 1998 Jazz Festival, Waiheke Island 1997 Two paintings selected for finals of "Art & Faith" exhibition, Auckland Anglican Cathedral 1997 Allegory Visualisation", Agora Gallery, Soho, New York 1998 "Island Life" Oedipus Rex Galery, Auckland, New Zealand 1999 Group show, Letham Gallery, Ponsonby, Auckland 1999 "Arts Desire", Groupl show, Warkworth, NZ 1999 "Them or Us" Solo Exhibition, Waiheke Art Gallery 1999 "As Far as the Eye Can See", group show, Mairangi Arts Centre, Auckland 1999 "And So To Bed" Exhibition, Group show, Waiheke Art Gallery" 2000 Work selected for Soho Internaitonal art Competition, New York 2001 "Circus Mount Eden" auctioned at Artists in Mount Eden 2001 Group show "Blokes Exhibition" Artworks, Waiheke Island 2001 Group show Arts Desire, Warkworth NZ 2001 Group show Artworks, Waiheke Island 2001 Group show Arts Desire, Warkworth New Zealand |
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