John Hurrell – 17 September, 2026

This suite, from Wellingtonian lecturer Simon Morris, of highly nuanced pigment-focused works, is about the processes of applying thin paint so their covering efficacy can be confirmed in person in the gallery space, and not via mediating photography seen on paper. Accordingly, they require direct ocular scrutiny and with it, thinking about perception and how directed light can subtly affect a delicate pigment-coated canvas surface.

So with the precise tones and liquid acrylic strips or segments impeccably matched (and often overlapping) these typical works are not innovative by any stretch of the imagination, but they are exceedingly joyful and thoughtful as basic Bauhaus. Recycling art history. But yet so overtly emotional.

This is because you get the sense Morris truly loves the materials he is so effectively manipulating. His title praises the radiance of the sun. And that perhaps he at night dreams about manually laying down flowing liquid marks all day long. And that (here to be a pinch mischievous) the making of exhibits in a studio is much more important than the end product on show in a gallery.

In other words, action rules for its own sake, extolling the functional pleasures of arm muscle usage—though I can’t imagine him ever being wasteful or purposeless.

Thus it is clear with these vertical strips or spiralling (petal-like) teetering forms, Morris loves geometry, but not too complex a variety. Favouring order that is basic and easily graspable. Perceptually obvious. Screaming its own transparent (vaguely ecstatic but slightly blurred & muffled) logic.

John Hurrell

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