Locky Morris
Visual Arts
Locky Morris was born in Derry in 1960, where he continues to live and work. He studied at Ulster Polytechnic (1978 - 80) and Manchester Polytechnic (1980 - 83).
Throughout his career, his engagement with Derry City and its changing character has shaped his work, often showing in community centres and the street. Over recent years, he has successfully completed a number of commissions for public art including Atlantic Drift (Derry City Council, 1998) and Polestar (Donegal County Council, 2006).
Made of simple, low value and ‘disposable’ materials (painted cardboard, masking tape), Morris’s sculptural work is fragile, almost child-like in construction but is evocatively exploring complex and contentious issues and ideas.
For a number of years in the late nineties he concentrated solely on making music with the band Rare.
Morris’s early works use Derry as a backdrop to mediate and comment on the experience of military surveillance and the inevitable objectification of the observed individual.
During the 80s and 90s he became known for producing work that referred and reacted explicitly to the Northern Irish conflict. Some early pieces was shown in the British Art Show touring Britain (1990), and New North (1990) and Strongholds (1991) at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool, while also being exhibited in his local neighbourhood, in places like disused bookmakers, community centres and vacant premises. He maintains this approach with upcoming projects in alternative spaces and continues to exhibit widely with recent solo presentations at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Germany and Mothers Tankstation, Dublin, along with group exhibitions at the Model, Sligo, Tulca festival, Galway, White Box Gallery and Apexart in New York City.
Selected Solo Shows:
2013/14 Dead On, Public Artwork with sound on a dead tree, Brooke Park, Derry, Void Sites, Artists’ garden, Derry (Dec 2013-April 2014)
2013 A Week in Goals, new and recent work, Creggan, Derry (Oct-Dec)
2011 This Then, Regional Cultural Centre, Donegal, Ireland
2011 Window Sill, Context Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland
2010 From Day One, Mother’s tankstation, Dublin
2010 This Then, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
2008 Me and my shadow, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Germany
2006 Polestar, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
2005 Premises, 3 works for 3 shops, Derry
2002 Home Entertainment, Orchard Gallery, Derry
2001
Atlantic Drift, City Council Offices, Strand Road, Derry
2000 The Work of a Dog, Context Gallery, Derry
1999
A Day’s Work (permanent video work) Mullan’s Bar, Little James’ St, Derry
1997
Past Conversation (installation using sound), Old Bookies, Chamberlain Street, Derry
1994 Comm II, Orchard Gallery, Derry
1992
Comm, Cornerhouse, Manchester
1988
Sculpture at the Centre, Pilot’s Row Community Centre, Derry
1988 Art in Conflict, Donegal County Museum, Letterkenny
1987
Flight of the Cooker, Pilot’s Row Community Centre, Derry
1986
In Their Place, Nine Sculptures for Derry City Walls, City Council Arts
1985
Sculpture, Orchard Gallery, Derry
Selected Group Shows:
2014/15 Invisible Violence, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia.
2014/15 Artium, Basque Museum- Centre for Contemporary Art-Vitoria, Spain
2014 Art of The Troubles, Ulster Museum, Belfast.
2014 The Faraway Nearby, FE Mc Williams Gallery, Banbridge.
2014 Re-Framing the Domestic in Irish Art, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland
2013 Tomorrows Almost Over, Void, Derry
2012
All Humans Do, White Box, Broome St, New York City -Toured to The Model, Sligo, Ireland
2012 Are We There Yet, Glenties, The Warehouse, Donegal, Ireland
2012 You Are Now Entering, Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry-Londonderry, Derry
2012 What became of the people we used to be? Tulca Festival, Galway, Ireland
2011 The Walls That Divide Us, Apexart, Church Street, NYC,
2009 Fantopia. A state of impossible perfection. Or, how to live with perfect people (and not kill them), Mother’s tankstation, Dublin.
2008 A Shout in the Street, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast,
2007 Things we may have missed, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast,
2006 The Disembodied Eye, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
2006 Dogs Have No Religion, Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague (toured to Tralee)
2005
The Trouble with Talkies, ADI Space, London
2003
B-Lomo (artists engage with Leopold Bloom), Context Gallery, Derry
2002–3
Something Else: Contemporary Art From Ireland, Turku Art Museum; Amos Anderson
Art Museum, Helsinki; Oulu City
2002-3 Art Museum; Joensuu Art Museum
2001
Small Steps, Context Gallery, Derry; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
2001 Bloody Sunday (with Willie Doherty and Philip Napier), Orchard Gallery, Derry
2000
In Search of Experience – Reconsidering the Readymade, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
2000 Small Steps, The Ellipse Art Centre, Washington
2000 One of those Days, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Germany
1998
Culture in Conflict, The Puffin Room, New York
1996 L’Imaginaire Irlandais, L’École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts,Paris
1994
Dirty, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1994
Schnittstellen, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany
1992 In-between, XLV Bienalle Venezia ( part of an artwork for the Turkish Pavilion – Adam Yilmaz/Jarg Geismer)
1991 Kunst Europa, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Germany
1991 Strongholds, Tate Gallery, Liverpool
1990 British Art Show, McLelland Galleries, Glasgow; Leeds City Art Gallery; Hayward Gallery, London
1990 New North, Tate Gallery, Liverpool; Laing Gallery, Newcastle; Third Eye Centre, Glasgow; Orchard Gallery, Derry, Mappin Gallery, Sheffield
1988
GPA Awards for Emerging Artists, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
1988 Sculpture Open ’88, City Centre, Dublin
1987
Directions Out, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
1887 State of the Nation, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry
1986 Place as Object, Art and Research Exchange, Belfast
1986 Political Life, Cornerhouse, Manchester
1984
New Art From Manchester, Salford Art Gallery
1984 Object Matters, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1984 Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin