Aaron Morse. Sea and Land

About

Aaron Morse's paintings and works-on-paper invite us to consider myth, nature and culture. Their dynamic compositions combine elements in colorful and complex layers. The title of Morse's show, "comes from an 1887 illustrated book on natural history," he writes. "I often make use of such titles, enjoying their outmoded and somewhat flat descriptions."

Aaron Morse's synthesis of historical visual materials provides a window on both the past and the present. "I am drawn to the mutability and malleability of images, the way that an image or set of cliches might be altered and changed into another thing. I return to natural history sources again and again, as they present a core theme for me: survival and the persistence of life.”

In Aaron Morse's work, skies, forests and oceans burst with an array of animals and plants from a variety of ecosystems. The planet rotates on its axis, the sun rises and sets, humans live their lives. "I’m fascinated by the complexity in nature, and like to give my paintings a shorthand or analogous amount of detail." Morse's work points to the layered meanings of the present moment, the stories we tell ourselves, the heterogeneity of human experience, the nuance of geologic time and the natural world.