Morgan Mandalay: ERUPTION AT ITS PEAK
Morgan Mandalay (USA)
March 7 – May 1st 2022
Volcanoes are a special subject within art history. They are the most strenuous and fascinating motives of plein air painting. Volcanoes reflect emotional states, as much earthly magmatic states. They are beauty and destruction, as well dormant vigilant of many cities in the world, such as Mexico City, Naples, Catania, Auckland, Goma.
Morgan Mandalay’s latest volcanoes series, returns to the quest of a painterly motive of the volcano, turned into a surrealistic painting around landscape and the human emotions. He was inspired by large sessions of plein air painting in California, a place home to many natural forces, among them 20 known volcanoes. Volcanoes are presented at the moment of the explosion, with its electromagnetic charged field. Viewed from the distance, flowers, lemons and birds are the antagonist of the destructive force of nature. Fragility and the ever recurring life meets the magmatic explosion.
cv*Long Beach, CA, USA
Education
2018 Fellow, Shandaken Project’s Paint School, New York, New York
2017 MFA, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California
2014 BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Selected Solo & Duo Exhibitions
2022 Eruption At Its Peak, wildpams Düsseldorf
2020 FAIR (NADA), with Christine Frerichs, Klowden Mann, Online
2020 On Colonus, Extase, Chicago, Illinois
2019 Dog and Pony, with Chloe Seibert, No Place Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2019 The Sun Hung Low or A Question Loomed, Everybody, Chicago, Illinois
2019 Bad Sin Frutas, Klowden Mann, Culver City, California
2018 Thank Your Squash Banana. I’m Not an Ape, You Are!, BWSMX, Mexico City, Mexico
2018 Holy, Holy, Holy, Cat Box Contemporary, Queens, New York
2018 Topography of a Terrestrial Paradise, Et Al Gallery, San Francisco, California
2017 DAMA, with Kim-Anh Schreiber, BWSMX, Turin, Italy
2017 Norman Amygdala, City Limits, Oakland, California
Select Group Exhibitions
2020 El busca, encuentra…y sigue encontrando, curated by Danny Baez, 2020 White Columns, New York, New York, USA
2019 Untitled Art Fair, Klowden Mann, Miami, Florida
2019 Collection No. 10, Interior and the Collector, Lyon, France
2019 Only Human, H.G. Inn, Chicago, Illinois
2019 Commutiny, Sibling, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2019 Tetsuo, curated by American Fantasy Classics, Bahamas Biennale, Detroit, Michigan
2018 El terror en lo profundo, curated by Deslave, Human Resources, Los Angeles, California
2018 freshly cut and softly bound, curated by Lisa Kehler and Timo Fahler, Vacation, New York, New York
2018 Paint School, Flag Art Foundation, New York, New York
2018 Gnaw the Bone That Falls to Thy Lot, curated by Sophie Jennis Kimberly Klark, Queens, New York
2018 Annex, curated by Jay Ezra Nayssan, M+B, Los Angeles, California
2017 Necronomicon Uploaded, Deslave, Tijuana, Mexico
2017 All the Small Things, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2017 A Step Away, curated by Anthony Graham and Lara Bullock, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego California
2017 Domestic Tranquility, 0-0, Los Angeles, California
2017 AnthroMorphoCene, curated by Lee M. Lavy, Bread and Salt, San Diego, California
2016 Float in a Dark Tank, Yautepec, Mexico City, Mexico
2016 How High?, Left Field, San Luis Obispo, California
2016 Le Domaine Enchanté, curated by Domenico di Chirico, Galleria Acappella, Naples, Italy
2016 Sugar Talk, LVL3, Chicago, Illinois
Selected Bibliography
2020 Early, Cassidy, Morgan Mandalay “On Colonus” at Extase, Chicago Artist Writers, February 23.
2020 Kaye, Gareth, Review: Morgan Mandalay @ Extase, Journal.fyi, February 22.
2020 Filchack, Ryan, Doubling in the Dark: A Review of Morgan Mandalay at Extase, Newcity Magazine, February 19.
2019 New American Paintings, #141 MFA Issue, curated by Amber Isseiva, December 01.
2019 Stromberg, Matthew, Morgan Mandalay at Klowden Mann, Contemporary Art Review, Los Angeles, May 1.
2019 Osbergm, Annabel, Morgan Mandalay, Artillery Magazine, April 24.
2019 Knight, Christopher, Review: In Morgan Mandalay’s new paintings, life carries on as Eden burns, Los Angeles Times, April 23.
2019 Bowie, Summer, Bad Sin Frutas: An Interview with Painter Morgan Mandalay, Autre, April 19.
2017 Grand, Robert, Q&A: Morgan Mandalay’s SPF15 Gallery Avoids Gentrification By
2017 Hosting Exhibitions on Public Beaches, Artspace, June 30.
2016 Van Houten Maldonado, Devon, Itinerant and Off-the-Map Galleries Find a Place in Mexico City’s Material Art Fair, Hyperallergic, February 5.
2015 Morris, Matt, Critics Pick: Todd Kelly and Morgan Mandalay at LVL3, Artforum
