Simon Morris

Simon Morris (b. Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand) Simon Morris is based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, where he lectures at Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University. Throughout his career, Morris has explored contemplative traditions through the use of space and time. This is examined in conceptual abstraction investigating the physical and perceptual qualities of light, presence, duration, occupation, in painting, and pottery. The broader intention in making and presenting artwork is to encourage direct experience in an accelerated, technology-driven world, and asserting the progressive nature of hand-made objects and the occupation of time to connect people with material, place and environment. Key sources include Modernist abstraction, eastern philosophies of perception, meditation, Japanese Korean and Chinese ceramics, conceptual art, site based art and minimalism / post minimalism. Morris’s diverse painting practice includes site-responsive wall paintings and architectural collaborations, notably with Athfield Architects. Significant projects include Rainscreen for The Dowse Art Museum and Light in Space, Space in Light commissioned by Otago University (2007).

Recent exhibitions include We move through life…perceiving,  with David Thomas at Two Rooms (2024), The Chair, Object Space. Auckland (2023). Room of Time, City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi (2022), and Colour follows light, light follows colour, Two Rooms, Auckland (2020), Yellow Ochre Room, commissioned by Christchurch Art Gallery (2015). International solo exhibitions include When Light Meets Surface, Shibukawa, Japan (2019), and Simon Morris, Project Space, Amsterdam (2017),  His recent international group exhibitions include Biennale of Reductive Arts, UniSQ, Toowoomba, Australia (2025), Future Memory, Kaunas, Lithuania (2022), 3CM Museum, Chi k11 Artspace, Shenyang, China (2019), WestFarbe: Paint vs Colour, curated by Christoph Dahlhausen, Stadtmuseum, Siegburg, Germany (2018), Kunstmuseum, Gelsenkirchen, Germany (2017), Raum 2810, Bonn, Germany (2016), and Aotearoa Baroque, MUCA ROMA, Mexico City (2011). In 2017, Morris was awarded the Fulbright Visual Arts scholarship to attend the artist-in-residence program at Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and in 2025 a residency at Driving Creek Pottery, Coromandel, NZ.