renata morales

26 september 2021 — 25 september 2022

renata morales
inane and mundane evolutionary tales of fear love and horror

Splattered and expressionistic layers of paint, ceramic and found objects create a set of emotional information that evokes an overly marked art workshop. Any connection to illusion quickly dissipates, it’s all emotion and energy. The layers of color evoke bodily fluids or toxic chemicals rather than beautiful ideals. Raw, physical and overpowering, the images and forms consume our attention – pulling us closer to their iconography. A quick glance is nonexistent, it’s a visual quick-sand that overwhelms the senses, an elaborate theatrical prop that sets our minds in motion.

This is Renata Morales, her art. Morales’ impulsive brushstrokes utilizing water color, acrylic on paper or glazes on ceramics are merely a vehicle for connecting thoughts and ideas. Her labor is visible as soon as she intervenes her paper or ceramic subjects.

Morales’ work is about moving past a critical disposition. Her post-conceptual thinking, in which ideas - along with personal artistic directives - become more important than the final objects pave the way for construction and deconstruction to exist in harmonious chaos. Here, labour and irreverence trumps the middle-class myth that art must revere antiquated notions of classical figurative painting or sculpture.

Her works reflect and sometimes reject numerous cultural references - from Renaissance painting, to early European modernism, to present day urban markings and graffiti. Morales’ approach to her art that incorporates faces, figures, and abstract classical forms are the core of her practice. She is not content with general surrealist connections, but in examining larger social structures and the history of craft and its influences. Every work is a manifesto that proves that art is alive and kicking and that even in mayhem there is method.

Renata Morales: Inane and Mundane Evolutionary Tales of Fear Love and Horror is made possible with lead support from Rodger Kobes + Michael Keller and the generous support of LALO, Canada Council for the Arts and José.

about renata morales
Born in Mexico City in 1975 to a pianist mother and a writer father, Morales started to paint and draw obsessively since she was a child, strongly encouraged by her mother. She spent part of her childhood in France, where she took lessons with artist Nadine Feuz and regularly visited museums and art galleries. After moving to the United States, Morales developed her love of music and was captivated by the newly emerging discipline of rock videos, before relocating to Canada with her family in 1989. She received formal fine arts training at Lionel Groulx College before turning to fashion design, collaborating with musicians, performers and photographers. For the following fifteen years, Morales had a very successful career as a fashion designer and art director. She is widely known for her work creating fashion designs for musicians such as Arcade Fire and was nominated Canadian Designer of the Year in 2001 and 2003. She received the Ariane ward for Design Excellence in 2006 and the LUX award for photography and Art Direction in 2007. Recently, Morales collaborated with Denis Villeneuve, Pedro Pires and Grimes, among others, and has collaborated with institutions such as the Fine Arts Museum in Montreal and the Venice Biennale. Since 2021 she has been in an artist in residence at Ceramica Suro, developing new techniques in ceramics.