Merlin James
Kerlin Gallery is delighted to present Double Shuffle, a two-person exhibition by Victoria Morton and Merlin James. Presenting the artists’ work side by side for the first time, the exhibition showcases two different but interlinked approaches to painting.
Morton and James are each known for an evolved, searching and idiosyncratic investigation of painting. Though distinct in style and subject matter, there is much they share, partly through a deep engagement with the history of their medium. Presented in combination their works promise a mutually enriching and illuminating push/pull, between figuration and abstraction, surface and depth, flow and resistance, dynamism and stillness, translucency and opacity: a double shuffle.
Victoria Morton
Disco d'Oro, 2023
Oil on linen
140.5 x 90.5 cm / 55.3 x 35.6 in
Victoria Morton
Bedroom, 2023
Oil on canvas
25 x 20 cm / 9.8 x 7.9 in
Victoria Morton’s paintings teeter on the verges of abstraction and figuration, enveloping us in a sensuous universe of colour, shape and vibrational energy. Shapeshifting forms seem to shimmer and radiate, informed by musical and biological structures, and marked by a sense of openness and mutability. “Paintings are not just a flat thing to look at; they can be felt like clothes you put on or a room you sit in,” the artist states in a forthcoming interview for BOMB Magazine (Summer 2023). Double Shuffle marks the first time Morton’s work has been presented in Dublin.
The artist will produce a new limited edition lithograph especially for the exhibition.
Merlin James
Untitled, 2018-20
acrylic and grit on canvas
82 x 65 cm / 32.3 x 25.6 in
Merlin James
Moon, Wave, Rock, 2023
acrylic on canvas
44.5 x 51.5 cm / 17.5 x 20.3 in
Recently described by e-flux’s Jonathan Griffin as “notorious for the confounding heterogeneity of his output”, Merlin James refines and renews many of painting’s most time-honoured concerns – genre and narrative, pictorial space and expressive gesture, the emotive resonance of colour and texture. Double Shuffle features a spectrum of works, including figures, seascapes, buildings, vistas, monochromes, and ‘frame’ paintings – modes that the artist has revisited and revised throughout his career.
A new publication, surveying 40 years of James’s work, will be launched as part of the exhibition.
Victoria Morton
Scoring for Vision, 2022
Acrylic and oil on linen
220 x 180 cm / 86.6 x 70.9 in
Victoria Morton
Disco d’Oro, 2023
Acrylic and oil on rough linen
140.5 x 90.5 cm / 55.3 x 35.6 in
Merlin James
Untitled (on green), 2022-23
acrylic on green canvas
40.5 x 32.5 cm / 15.9 x 12.8 in
Victoria Morton
Cycle Route, 2022
Acrylic and oil on rough linen
30.5 x 30.5 cm / 12 x 12 in
launch of new book and lithograph
On the occasion of Double Shuffle, we are excited to launch a landmark new publication by Merlin James and a new limited edition lithograph by Victoria Morton.
Merlin James’s ambitious new book offers the most comprehensive overview of the artist’s career to date, compiling 40 years of his painting practice. The book contains full-colour reproductions of almost 300 artworks, organised non-chronologically and guided instead by the various threads and motifs that have woven throughout his career over the past four decades.
Designed by Tony Waddingham and published in collaboration with Sikemma Jenkins & Co, New York and P420, Bologna.
Victoria Morton, in collaboration with Edinburgh Printmakers, has produced a new edition especially for Double Shuffle.
details:
Announcement, 2023
6-colour lithograph printed in 4 runs from 3 plates and 1 stone
on Madrid 300gsm paper
edition of 20 + 4 AP
50 x 70 cm / 19.7 x 27.6 in unframed
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
Victoria Morton & Merlin James, Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, 2 June – 8 July. Photography: Louis Haugh
about the artists
Victoria Morton
(b.1971, Glasgow, UK)
Victoria Morton has exhibited widely across the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. Solo exhibitions include Tramway, Glasgow; Inverleith House, Edinburgh; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn; Sadie Coles, London; The Modern Institute, Glasgow; Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo; Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, Boston; Nino Mier Gallery Los Angeles.
Her work is represented in collections worldwide, including Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris; MAK Architects, London; RCM Royal College of Music Museum, London; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Museum Voorlinden, The Netherlands; San Francisco Museum of Art; and Glasgow Museum.
Merlin James
(b. 1960, Cardiff, UK)
Merlin James has had numerous solo exhibitions, including at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; Venice Biennale, Wales Pavilion; Sikkema Jenkins, New York; KW Institute, Berlin; CCA, Glasgow; Kunstverein, Freiberg; Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; OCT, Shunde & Shenzhen; Anton Kern, New York; Philadelphia Art Alliance.
Selected international collections include Tate, London; Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China and National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
Join us in Kerlin Gallery at 5pm on Thursday 1 June for the launch of a new publication by Merlin James, and an edition by Victoria Morton.
The event will be followed by an opening reception for the artists’ two-person exhibition, Double Shuffle.