{"id":492070,"date":"2026-03-24T05:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/492070\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T05:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:50:13","slug":"stephen-morrisons-trompe-loeil-dog-world-paintings-are-fetching-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/492070\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Morrison’s Trompe-L’\u0153il ‘Dog World’ Paintings Are Fetching \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any dog owner can appreciate the kind of unfettered, often visceral reactions canines have to everything from their favorite treats to a scurrying squirrel to another dog passing by the window. Their lack of inhibition and legendary fidelity bring comfort, routine, and goofiness to our daily lives despite their total unawareness of their effects on us. For Stephen Morrison<\/a>, curiosity and play find their way into vibrant, quirky paintings<\/a> that \u201cinvite viewers to rediscover the magic and absurdity often obscured by the routine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Morrison\u2019s practice has lately revolved around trompe l\u2019\u0153il<\/a> compositions of everyday objects and tableaux in which dogs\u2019 features appear unexpectedly. A snout stands in for the flap of a handbag or juts out from the side of a Pepsi can. His current solo exhibition, Dog Show #5: Field Recordings at SLAG&RX<\/a>, centers on a series of objects referencing places he worked on the pieces\u2014Paris, New York City, and Maine\u2014that also play important roles in his life.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201c111 Limerock Street\u201d (2025), oil on quilted fabric on panel, 79 x 51 inches<\/p>\n

Morrison\u2019s own memories and connections find their way into his collection of books, foods, photographs, and other items in an almost seek-and-find fashion. At first glance, the tableaux appear simply as collections of everyday things like vases, fruit, and cameras. But upon closer inspection, tiny visages appear along with references to dogs, from bones stitched into patchwork backgrounds to the sleepy face of a pooch in the center of a starfish and a bunch of green grapes with puppy faces. Always relaxed, even sleepy, the dogs\u2019 expressions evoke a calm sweetness, even nostalgia, paired with a sense of abundance.<\/p>\n

In this series, the artist grapples with what belonging means, from revisiting his childhood home in Maine to thinking about his past decade in New York City to spending two months in Paris, where, \u201cdespite being married to a Frenchman, having many French friends, and having spent considerable time in the city, I had never felt at home,\u201d he says. \u201cThe ornate beauty of the architecture and the sense I have of everything being solidly \u2018in its place\u2019 makes it hard to feel inspired there for me.\u201d So, he set out to explore that sense of disjointedness and creative conflict.<\/p>\n

France is referenced in Morrison\u2019s paintings by backgrounds of toile, or toile de jouy, a fabric design popular in the 18th century that features pastoral scenes, while Maine is represented by patchwork quilts he co-designed with his mother, who actually stitched them before they were incorporated into the works. \u201cBy bringing the objects and backgrounds into my dog world, I\u2019ve rewritten my external material world through this lens, creating a new and more uniquely personal vision of these places,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Morrison will be an artist-in-residence at BUoY<\/a> in Tokyo this summer, where he\u2019s looking forward to incorporating Japanese textiles into a new series of paintings. He\u2019s also preparing for a pop-up solo exhibition at Lazy Mike Gallery<\/a> in Seoul and a group exhibition at Hashimoto Contemporary<\/a>. Dog Show #5: Field Recordings continues through March 28 in New York. See more on the artist\u2019s Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Detail of \u201c111 Limerock Street\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cUntitled (Maine 2)\u201d (2026), oil on quilted fabric on panel, 20 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cUntitled (Paris 2)\u201d (2025), oil on canvas, 20 x 15 inches<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cUntitled (NYC)\u201d (2026), oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cUntitled (Paris 1)\u201d (2025), oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cUntitled (Maine 1)\u201d (2026), oil on quilted fabric on panel, 20 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Detail of \u201cUntitled (Maine 1)\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Detail of \u201c147 Rue L\u00e9on-Maurice Nordmann\u201d<\/p>\n

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