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    The Dog Did It! Stephen Morrison’s Trompe-l’œils Brim with Canine Character

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    “Housework Won’t Kill You, But Why Take a Chance” (2024), oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. All images courtesy of Stephen Morrison and Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission

    The Dog Did It! Stephen Morrison’s Trompe-l’œils Brim with Canine Character

    January 16, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    To say that Stephen Morrison’s work is inspired by dogs would be an understatement. Through sculptural assemblages and paintings of puppy faces tucked in foliage or morphing from household items, Morrison evokes the timeless love for our pets.

    “I think I’ve always been a bit of a hedonist and kind of set up to love the life of a dog, of doing whatever you want when you want to do it,” Morrison recently told Hyperallergic in an interview. “That’s why making work with dogs feels so natural because it’s deeply a part of my character.”

    “Every Direction at Once” (2025), oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches

    Morrison also draws inspiration from his beloved pit bull mix, Tilly, who was the ring bearer at his wedding and died three years ago. Her curious visage lives on in the artist’s idiosyncratic compositions, bringing expressive life to everything from birdhouses to table lamps.

    In the artist’s forthcoming solo exhibition at Hashimoto Contemporary, Morrison continues to channel canine personalities in Dog Show #4: House Broken.

    Trompe-l’œil paintings portray the supports on the backs of canvases, teeming with botanicals, stuffed animals, magazine clippings, and fruit. Likewise, a series of sculptures made from epoxy clay, resin, paper, and oil paint appear like assemblages of seemingly disparate items.

    In “Clump Spirit #5 (Study),” for example, a puppy’s face emerges from the front of a violin hanging from a hook, and “Clump Spirit #1 (Living Room)” displays a happy dog on a TV screen, stacked high with other objects that also feature distinctive eyes and snouts. Everything appears in a state of joyful yet barely contained disarray.

    “Clump Spirit #1 (Living Room)” (2024), television, silicone, textile, resin, and epoxy clay, 12 x 21 x 12 inches

    “This show reflects on the chaotic messiness of home life, inspired by the lively and dysfunctional environment I grew up in,” Morrison says. “Our house was filled with dancing, yelling, slapdash crafting, and a constant swirl of half-finished projects. Amid all the noise, there was an odd harmony—moments where the chaos seemed to hum along just right, as if disorder itself had a rhythm.”

    Dog Show #4: House Broken runs from January 18 to February 8 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Build a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul” (2024), oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches

    “Clump Spirit #4 (Study)” (2025), epoxy clay, paper, resin, and oil paint, 26 x 10 x 5 1/2 inches

    “The Council of Plastic Limbs” (2025), oil on panel, 24 x 36 inches

    “Clump Spirit #3 (Bedroom)” (2025), epoxy clay and oil paint, 15 x 8 x 7 inches

    “Thank You for Your Business” (2025), oil on panel, 48 x 36 inches

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    • 113 Shares96 Views

      in Art

      Lifelike Canines Lounge in Emily O’Leary Uncanny Hooked Rugs

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      “Fluffy-Tailed Ticked Dog” (2022), hand-hooked mostly-wool yarn on linen. All images courtesy of Emily O’Leary, shared with permission

      Lifelike Canines Lounge in Emily O’Leary Uncanny Hooked Rugs

      January 13, 2025

      ArtCraft

      Kate Mothes

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      Most dogs spend at least half of their day asleep—some getting z’s for upwards of 18 hours. Whether curled up on the floor or enjoying a long-legged stretch, the subjects of Emily O’Leary’s rugs evoke our beloved pets.

      Based on photographs of actual dogs, she focuses mostly on animals the artist doesn’t know. “I like to hook dogs that are pretty ‘mutty’ looking, that don’t look like yard-bound Golden Retrievers or Doodles,” she tells Colossal. “I’m attracted to the shared history of humans and dogs—how the bulk of their domestication may have happened somewhat inadvertently.”

      “Injured Elbow Dog” (2020), hand-hooked wool yarn on linen

      Employing a carpet-making technique called rug hooking, the earliest form of which can be traced to Northern England in the early 19th century, O’Leary spends several months on a single piece. Compared to tufting, “It’s a slower, more traditional process,” she says, but the process allows each individual loop to be applied at a different height, giving her the ability to create three-dimensional reliefs.

      O’Leary learned to make rugs after predominantly focusing on embroidery. When some friends organized an exhibition themed around dogs, she had the idea to make a work in the shape of a life-size canine. “I’m lucky that the rugs sort of do inspire tender feelings in the people who see them, but that they’re also a bit uncanny,” she says.

      The pieces’ weight and realistic details engender an intimate connection as they come to life, so to speak. “I really feel like I’ve built a relationship with the object,” she says, adding: “Sometimes the dogs I hook have wounds or scars. The dog rug I’m working on right now is missing a little chunk of her ear.  I want to depict them as they are, not stuffed animal versions.”

      Find more on O’Leary’s website and Instagram.

      “Brown and Black Dog” (2021), hand-hooked wool yarn on linen

      Detail of “Mottled-leg Dog” (2024), hand-hooked wool yarn on linen

      “Sandy Reddish Dog” (2023), hand-hooked mostly-wool yarn on linen

      Photo by Bucky Miller

      Photo by Bucky Miller

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    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Art

      On Canvas and Shell, Alexis Trice Paints Ethereal Scenes Gleaming with Energy

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      “High Spirits II.” All images courtesy of Arch Enemy Arts, shared with permission

      On Canvas and Shell, Alexis Trice Paints Ethereal Scenes Gleaming with Energy

      October 22, 2024

      ArtNature

      Grace Ebert

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      For Alexis Trice, water is about moving energy and emotion. The native New Yorker (previously) paints gleaming tears that gush from an animal’s eyes or green-tinged seas with roiling waves to “release and recycle.” She adds, “I wanted to make work that could be felt without fully being seen.”

      Earthy color palettes and glinting light recur in Trice’s works, along with shaggy brown dogs that “represent the ideal conduit to bridge the gap of shared emotion between wild animals and humans.” One such creature appears in “Hay Fever,” which features the canine surrounded by thick grass with broken strands of pearls in its mouth.

      “Deep Sea, Deep Sea, Swallow Me”

      Trice frequently returns to these naturally lustrous gems to convey the passage of time, and in her latest exhibition Dust & Brine, mollusks appear as substrates in addition to subject matter. Twenty scallop shells hold ethereal scenes in miniature, whether a diptych of a bisected blue whale or three fish swirling in a lucky trinity.

      Atmospheric and ethereal, this body of work ventures further into the surreal. The artist writes about “High Spirits II,” which depicts a pair of taper candles embedded in a pink fish: “Soft flaky scales and iridescence achieved through many glazes, trial, and error. Juicy wet flesh, and flashes of candlelight peering through astigmatism eyes.”

      If you’re in Philadelphia, stop by Arch Enemy Arts to see Trice’s work through October 27. Otherwise, find more on her website and Instagram.

      “Fortune II”

      “My Heart is a Lonesome Hunter”

      “Low Tide”

      “The Old Dog”

      “A Fly”

      “Hay Fever”

      “The Sun Gets in Your Eyes”

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