It is and it is not

06 July 2016

A selection of work by Celia Morgan on display at Tweed Regional Gallery

“It is and it is not” is the title of an intriguing exhibition of works on paper by Bangalow artist Celia Morgan, on display at Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah from 15 July to 11 September 2016.

Celia Morgan’s practice is a combination of painting, drawing and semi theatrical happenings.

Born in New Zealand, Celia Morgan has lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and USA. She holds a PhD from Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney, a Masters in Fine Art from Otago Polytechnic School of Art, New Zealand and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of NSW.

Morgan has exhibited sporadically both in Australia and internationally since 1996 and her work is held in private collections around the world. She has been a finalist in numerous prizes and recipient of various awards.

“The work of this exhibition is drawn from a life-long enchantment with the line of the horizon. That line, which in fact does not exist, liberates me from the usual currents of thought and experience,” Morgan said.

“The title of the exhibition comes from a quote from the 15th Century German philosopher and theologian, Nicholas Cusanus. In his De Docta Ignorantia, Cusanus reduces the discombobulating possibilities of existence into the formula ‘it is or it is not; it is and it is not; it neither is nor is it not.’ From this we are led to an appreciation that understanding is not so much an approach towards something, as towards nothing. This philosophical premise has been the guiding principle in the production of the work presented here.”

All of Morgan’s drawings were created while resident in an exquisite landscape - a remote inland canyon in NSW. Ironically this setting could not be more removed from the atmospheric depictions of sea and sky which form the basis of this exhibition’s imagery.

You are warmly invited to attend the official opening by artist, Michelle Dawson at 6pm (for 6.30pm) on Friday 15 July.

Celia Morgan will also be presenting a public program in conjunction with her exhibition. Visit the Gallery and observe the artist in the exhibition space “unknotting an artwork” on Sunday 31 July from 10am - 1pm and 1.30pm - 5pm.

“No thing can exist without its simultaneous non-existence. Nothing is fixed, everything recedes and everything can at all times be other than what it is,” the artist said.

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Photo 1(JPG, 205KB)

Caption: Celia Morgan, untitled (detail), 2016, graphite on paper, 10.5cm x 14.5cm