Artistaday.com - Find new contemporary art, create your own gallery of art
Artistaday.com - Find new contemporary art, create your own gallery of art

Andrew Morrow  Toronto, ON, Canada


* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.


About Andrew


An artist featured in many international collections, as well as the recipient of multiple awards and prizes, Andrew Morrow is a Toronto-based painter known for epic, large-scaled depictions of mass conflict. His paintings, described as “chaotic”, “witty”, and “remarkable” pull from varied ages and genres, assembling images reflecting the potential for, or actualization of, beautiful violence or power.


Follow Andrew



Andrew appears in the following Top 10 lists


'Horse Power'

'Canada'

'2009'


10 of 11 reactions displayed


"These paintings are hilarious. Just because something is violent, doesn't mean that it can't be perceived as funny. Vonnegut said that the best humor requires an element of fear. Something about the relief of laughing. To find yourself laughing when there's so much at stake proves you still have some spirit left in the face of your fear. To laugh at violence at certain times is not itself an act of violence. It's okay to laugh. I think that these paintings suggest an absurdity about the kind of ideas we get from war--victory, honor, nobility, heroism, etc. When we get some distance from the individual causes and struggles, we recognize the absurdity of it. To laugh at this absurdity is to see violence for what it is-- ridiculous. However, I don't see it as a didactic polemic against violence either. I think Andrew has genuine attraction to depictions of violence or he wouldn't have the motivation to glamorize it in his satirical way. So I don't think it's a rejection of violence, so much as a fascination with it. In becoming fascinated with anything, one begins to see it as beautiful. Seeing beauty in violence is not itself an act of violence. Art is not about reinforcing the convictions of the moralists and polemicists. Instead, it hopefully broadens the scope of the imagination, and with any luck, helps to avoid becoming one of the moralists."

"It is definitely violent, and I do enjoy them. I do not believe mixing humor with violence is funny. Although I'm totally a hypocrite because Southpark is very funny to me. Lightning is not violent. Violence is an act of aggression. A lightning bolt is not alive, so it can not be aggressive. I am open to a different perspective on that though."

"Amazing, so much to look at.I'm coming back with a magnifying glass."

"Re: "what the hell is ??beautiful violence??A lightning strike is violent, but many consider it beautiful."

"Looks like Armageddon if you ask me. Beautiful painting."

"Nice it beautiful artwork"

"Elegantly said Roger........... They are superb indeed......Jack1122"

"Andrew, your work is BEAUTIFUL!"

"What an interesting change from the artwork I have seen on here the last few months I have been following the site."

"Andrew Morrow paints grand, furious, abstract paintings that resolve in the details to be figurative. The titles also help one figure out the action . That is a description of his work from 2008. Earlier work was more exclusively figurative but always of violence, vortexes, clashes, and intercourse. These are very strong paintings with their nostalgia of Delacroix."

artistaday instagram artistaday pinterest