Exploring the abstract: Rebecca Morris’s sprawling MCA survey show

Abstract painter Rebecca Morris’s survey show debuted at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art on September 30. The culmination of nearly two decades of work, Rebecca Morris: 2001-2022 explores the evolution of the Los Angeles-based painter’s visual language.

Morris’s latest exhibit at the MCA includes 27 paintings from the past two decades, illustrating the progression of her style across a breadth of work. An MFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rebecca Morris: 2001-2022 is the artist’s second institutional solo exhibition in the Windy City, following a survey show at the University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society in 2005.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Rebecca Morris back to the MCA,” Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn said in a statement. “...this survey is a well-deserved recognition of Morris’s practice and influence in the contemporary art world.”

Rebecca Morris is best known for her inventive approach to composition, gesture, and color, applied through large-scale works. Morris’s paintings seek to challenge the historical limits of painting, expanding the capabilities of her chosen medium. 

Morris pushes the boundaries of painting with recurring motifs and mixed-media compositions, resulting in visual landscapes that are equal parts engaging and ambiguous. Viewers will note the prevalence of grids in Morris’s work, the shape appearing numerous times in her MCA series.

Metallic elements are also common in Morris’s works, with accents of gold leaf and shiny oil paint serving as a link throughout the exhibit. “...even as a child, I used metallic colored pencils, I used gold leaf in college, so these were materials I was always drawn to,” says Morris.

Morris prefers to leave her works open-ended, allowing viewers to derive their own narrative from each piece. Many of her works are titled simply with numbers to avoid any preconceived notion of what the painting is about.

Oftentimes, Morris says that her paintings will bleed together, creating a sort of “chain reaction” where any unfinished work will be resolved within the next. “I’m a big proponent of deciding when your painting should be finished, of moving the needle on when that moment is,” says Morris.

Rebecca Morris: 2001-2022 will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art through April 7, 2024. For tickets and more information, visit the MCA’s official site.