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“Cole Morgan“...he finds eloquence in the most banal minutiae which he then fashions into wildly incongruous cross-cultural associations. In the vernacular of Morgan’s canvases, triangles, pyramids and balls happliy co-exist with zulu shields, planets and dervishes. Not that he sets out to plan these things. he speaks of being “taken”by these objects, adding that “when I’m done ‘exploring’ them, a new one presents itself.”

Cole Morgan’s self-contained, abstract paintings confront our perceptions of reality. It is as if he’s sending us a message: If we look beyond accepted notions of form and function, we might discover a parallel reality amidst the familiar. Morgan’s primary goal is to direct, but never to guide us through constant discovery in his paintings. The tools he employs to “conduct” our eye are as likely to be drawn from classical principles of painting as from the vernacular of the mundane. The cross element or triangle construction, a style derived from 17th-century religious tableaux of the Holy Trinity, provides spatial division in his compositions as he re-configures shapes and objects to a new purpose. But if Morgan ascribes to any religion, it would be the one of “Order”, in which composition is distilled to its barest minimum, where “shapes, textures and colors are refined and concentrated to their most visually descriptive elements. Every square millimeter of canvas is controlled.”

For anyone in search of meaning, Morgan’s obscure notes to himself and primal scratchings are fool’s gold, since value is wholly subjective. Indeed, meaning is an afterthought, because in spite of all the tease, all the titillation of controlled form and classic proportions to direct our gaze, the tour on which this artist takes us is nothing but an elaborate ruse designed to free our imagination. All the self-important scribbles are just that, and meaning lies, as it did for the Dadaists, only in what we make of Morgan’s clues to the trail of our subconscious.

1950 Born New York, USA.
Currently works and lives in Antwerp Belgium.

Education:

• 1971 BFA, University of New Mexico.
• 1972-72 Santa Reparata, Centro d’ Arte Graffico, Florence, Italy.
• 1973-74 De Vrije Akademie, The Hague, The Netherlands.
• 1974-75 Taught painting and drawing, York Road School, Dun Loaghaire, Dublin, Ireland.

Selected Exhibitions:

• 2010 San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery.
• 2009 Los Angeles Art Show, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, CA.
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, Art Miami, FL.
• 2008 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, Red Dot Art Fair, Miami FL.
• 2007 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
  Korea International Art Fair, CIGE, Beijing, China.
• 2006 TEFAF Maastricht, Galerie Mi a Joosten, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  Art Milan, Milan.
  Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, Switzerland.
  Museum Laerken, Nykobing Falster, Denmark.
  Oisterwijk Sculpture 2006, Etienne & Van Loon Contemporary Fine Art, Oisterwijk, Netherlands.
  Art Cologne, Galerie Jorg Hasenbach, Antwerp, Belgium, Capetown, South Africa.
• 2005 TEFAF Maastricht, Galerie Mia Joosten, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  Art Fair Den Bosch, Galerie Husstege, Den Bosch, Netherlands.
  KUNST RAI, Amsterdam, Galerie Contempo, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  Oisterwijk Sculpture 2005, Etienne & Van Loon Contemporary Fine Art, Oisterwijk, Netherlands.
  Art Cologne, Galerie Jorg Hasenbach, Antwerp, Belgium.
  Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, Switzerland.
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
  Toronto International Artfair, Toronto, Canada.
  Gallery Jones, Vancouver, Canada.
• 2004 San Francisco International Art Exposition, Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  Art Rotterdam, Galerie Contempo, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  TEFAF Maastricht, Galeria Mia Joosten, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  National Glass Museum Ledeerman, Netherlands.
  PAN Amsterdam, Galerie Hüsstege, Den Bosch, Netherlands.
  Galerie Laerkin, Nykobing Falster, Denmark.
  Galerie Protee, Paris, France.
• 2003 San Francisco International Art Exposition, Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  Buschlen Mowatt Galleries, Palm Desert, CA.
  Art Rotterdam, Galerie Contempo, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  TEFAF Maastricht, Galeria Mia Joosten, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  Kunst 2003 Zurich, Galerie Leupi, Nottwil-Zurich, Ascona, Switzerland.
  Kunst Köln 2003, Galerie Leupi, Nottwil-Zurich, Ascona, Switzerland.
  Buschlen Mowatt Galleries, Vancouver, Canada.
  Standsmuseum Zoetermeer, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands.
  Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID.
  Art Paris, Galerie Protee, Paris, France.
  Toronto International Art Fair, Buschlen Mowatt Galleries, Vancouver, Canada.
  Art Cologne, Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  PAN Amsterdam, Galerie Hüsstege, Den Bosch, Netherlands.
• 2002 ART MIAMI, Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  San Francisco International Art Exposition, Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  Art Rotterdam, Galerie Contempo, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  TEFAF, Maastricht, Galeria Mia Joosten, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  Art Zurich 2002, Galerie Leupi, Zofingen, Switzerland.
  Kunstral Art Amsterdam, Galerie Contempo, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  Art Chicago, Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  Galerie Guy Pieters, St. Martens Latern, Belgium.
  Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho.
  Caldwell Snyder Galleries, San Francisco, New York.
  PAN Amsterdam, Galerie Hüsstege, Den Bosch, Netherlands.
  Toronto International Art Fair, Buschlen Mowatt Galleries, Vancouver, Canada.
  Art Vienna, Galerie Leupi, Zofingen & Ascona, Switzerland.
  Galerie Hüsstege, Den Bosch, Netherlands.