ART CAKE RESIDENT PRESENTATION SERIES
JEFFREY MORABITO: THE ENDLESS YEAR
AUG 19 - AUG 28, 2021 (BY APPOINTMENT)
THURSDAY, AUG 19, 5-8P
For the second year of the studio program, Art Cake is pleased to present a solo presentation, titled The Endless Year, by participating artist, Jeffrey Morabito. On view are paintings made throughout the pandemic. The artist notes, “As time slowed down this past year during the (first) pandemic of our lifetimes, certain moments echoed; a rodent or squirrel scurrying by, a vast cemetery by the freeway, a neighbor’s lost pet poster. When time feels endless, these small moments reflect our own persistence.” This presentation also marks the end of Morabito’s two year residency at Art Cake. On Thursday, August 19, the artist will be on site welcoming visitors from 5-8P. To reserve a time to visit in person, please email info@artcake.org.
This is the fifth part of a series that Art Cake has organized for the participating artists-in-residence as an opportunity to present and document their work made during the pandemic outside of the studio
Please view the artists-in-residence for a deeper look into each artist’s studio practice.
JEFFREY MORABITO IN CONVERSATION WITH MARINA GLUCKMAN
MG: Just before the pandemic, your work was the subject of a solo exhibition at SFA Projects in New York. At the time, your visual vocabulary was reimagining traditional genres, including bird and flower painting.
Your paintings during the same year also explored food studies. You made a series of avocado toast paintings, one which was featured in The New York Times.
While the paintings presented in The Endless Year are also close studies and observational paintings of urban scenes, such as a lost pet poster, an outdoor view of a subway platform, or a rodent or squirrel crossing your path. How has your practice shifted throughout the pandemic?
JM: The biggest thing that changed for me, and probably the same for other people, was that my attention span changed. Having everyday be the same, denied me of all the distractions and randomness that I normally find charming in life. Being an artist in NYC means your life is in constant flux, but going through groundhog day everyday requires a different temperament, at least for me. As I slowed down I started to notice smaller things that became more profound; like the lost pet ads around my neighborhood. I always thought they were funny, and quite tacky. But now I saw the humanity and desperation in them. I never realized before how some of them go up and come down right away, a possible returned pet? Then there would be the opposite, where I would see the same one get posted further and further away.
Once I started my lost pet series I realized that this was also an opportunity to recontextualize another well known genre of painting: the commissioned pet portrait.
MG: Sketching is a large part of your process –– you often share sketches you have made during a commute or while sitting in a park on your Instagram. Some of these sketches are later developed into large scale paintings. Can you talk about your process and the transition from the sketch to the painting?
JM: The main reason why sketching is such a large part of my practice is that I could never possibly make into paintings all the ideas I have. By constantly sketching I can at least get down something, no matter how fleeting the idea or image is. Although I do develop ideas over time, I try to let them initially come to me as spontaneous and without pretense as possible. For the past few years, I’ve been almost exclusively sketching with sumi ink. This allows me to look at the image I’ve sketched for its purely abstract and gestural qualities. If I think those qualities can be pushed into some new territory, then it becomes a painting. The Lost Pet Series for example, has an emphasis on the verticality of its gesture. Much like a totem pole, it’s made with the intention for the eye to move up and down.
MG: Your paintings throughout the last two years have been consistently made in a similar style comprising layers and layers of paint which provide the compositions on canvas with abundant texture. Can you share a bit about your technique?
JM: I’m actually someone who takes more paint off the canvas than on. I do a lot of scraping off, it’s something I think I have always done but only realized in the last few years and consciously begun to consider more carefully how I take the paint off. Since COVID, I’ve been working on multiple pieces at the same time. As I scrape one part off, it may find its way on another painting or even sometimes land back on the same painting.
MG: You’ve mentioned that some of your paintings are based on your memory of a landscape or a scene, while others are from close observation of a subject. Is this a conscious decision or more intuitive?
JM: I think all my paintings are a product of both intuition and conscious decision. The same can be said for working from observation or memory. One enables the other. With what process I finish a painting with, I try to keep it arbitrary. It’s not good to be too aware of what I’m doing or I may not have any fun.
MG: In your early years, you frequently traveled between New York and Hong Kong. In 2006, you apprenticed with a calligraphy master in Seoul, South Korea, and spent the following six years in Beijing at Red Gate Residency and teaching at Capital Normal University. Has your time abroad and travel in general influenced your practice?
JM: It's been a very big influence on me as a person, so I’m sure there’s many ways that it affects my practice. Since I’ve spent so much time away from New York, there’s a part of me that’s a bit of an outsider now, therefore giving me a new perspective on things here. I don’t think I would have chosen to paint a pigeon or avocado toast if I had not been away for so long.
MG: What other projects have taken form during the pandemic and what are you currently working on?
JM: I (like what feels like everyone else did) started a podcast. It’s called “I Know Strange People.” It took me a long time to figure out a concept that felt authentic to me. One of my best friends, who's a bartender, used to tell me that I know strange people whenever I brought an artist over to his bar. I interview mostly other artists, but I have done some with filmmakers and plan to do a few with writers and other creative types. I discuss what's unconventional or idiosyncratic about themselves, their art and process. The bigger question for this podcast and for the people I interview with, is do I seek out strange people, or do they seek me out.
It’s also a great excuse for me to make spacey electronic music to put in the podcast.
MG: Do you have upcoming projects? Where can we follow your work after your Art Cake residency?
JM: There were some things cooking, I was going to have a museum show in Korea but COVID killed that. The organizers of that show are still trying to put something together.
My work can be seen on my website: www.jeffreymorabito.com
And of course instagram, my handle is @morabitostudio.
