artist statement
Becoming, Arts Council of Greater Palatka,
forthcoming solo exhibition, 2023
Becoming is the autobiography of a woman; healing through postpartum.
My body became a home for my children, a storage facility for trauma, a vessel for Supreme Wisdom to remember itself within, a fountain of love.
Ballooned, deflated, stretched, scared, shedded - pushed to the edge of where life and death meet. I sit in my heart center and witness the unraveling of what it means to be human, and to become something more Divine.
I use my lived experiences as a foundation for understanding the intersection between the Cosmic Spirit, Love, trauma, fear, vulnerability, domesticity, and motherhood. I continue to explore identity and the gap trauma creates between the omnipresent divinity and the impermanence of being human.
My art-making practice transforms the intangible narrative of becoming a mother into palpable objects which shelter my stories. Motherhood acts a platform to perform all the pillars of yoga of which are then absorbed and processed into large scale collages. Embarking on a deep spiritual and healing journey, my personal becoming is returning me home to Atman, my true Self, and is mirrored in the marks, textures, colors, and layers in my works on paper.
Monumental collages act as skins, absorbing my lived experiences. These works are bodily, visceral, and alive. They have a microbial quality with textural and deeply layered flesh. They are conceived from collaborative paintings and drawings made with my children which I then shred, tear, rearrange, and use as the foundational material for my paintings to develop upon, akin to the transformation of my body, mind, and soul experiences as a mother.
A yearning to restore inner harmony lingers in the storytelling embedded in the works alongside representations of sentimental objects. Childhood games and learning activities like writing and math exercises are recorded in my works. Meaning is given to the mundane and repetitive nature of domestic life forging new ways of seeing and communicating as a mother, maker, partner, yogi, and divine being - parts of my ever evolving humanity. Crayons, drool, crushed up medicine used as pigment, marks from children’s safety scissors, stickers, glue, glitter, kids workbook pages, to-do lists, and letters are smashed together within my works.
As I sit on the floor playing tic-tac-toe with my son Leo, and my daughter Rai clinging to my breast, my nervous system shot to pieces, stuck in fight-or-flight, stomach sore from being manipulated, heart sore from a broken partner, tears rising, overwhelmed and overstimulated, signing songs and smiling. Leo giggles and claps as he beats me in the game. The complexity and messiness of motherhood is invisible, often lonely, and simultaneously joyous and magnificent. Traumatic birthing experiences can make life extremely confusing and pull you deep into the darkest parts of humanity or the brightness of Brahman and Love.
cv
morgan goldsmith
b. 1988, new york
currently dwelling in naples, fl
education
2016 MFA, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 BFA, The State University of New York, Purchase College, NY
solo exhibitions
2023 Becoming, Arts Council of Greater Palatka, FL (forthcoming)
2022 THUNDER FLOWER emotional labor, Florida Mining Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2019 Soul Force, Town & Country Inn, Santa Barbara, CA
2019 The Presence of the Indwelling Spirit, The Farm on Adderley, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Works on Paper, Marine Park Coffee, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Dixon, The Glass Box Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 Receptive to Sensual Impressions, @ Quinto Residence, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 Thug On The Mesa, The Glass Box Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 11743, The Glass Box Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
two person exhibitions
2021 Higher Love, with Susan Carr, Florida Mining Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
selected group exhibitions
2022 Eye Hugs, The Lark, Jacksonville, FL
2020 Cellophane, M. David & Co., Brooklyn, NY
2019 Pegs Pongs Applesauce, LoBo, New York, NY
2018 Black Friday 2, George Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Conception Arts, M1-5 Lounge, New York, NY
2018 Dwellings, LoBo, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Transpose, Eastside International, Los Angeles, CA
2016 10x10x10xTieton Exhibition, Mighty Tieton Warehouse, Tieton, WA
2016 UCSB MFA Thesis Exhibition, AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 GLAMFA, Cal State Long Beach, CA
2015 10x10x10xTieton Exhibition, Mighty Tieton Warehouse, Tieton, WA
2015 Albatross @ PICA TADADA, Portland, Oregon
2015 UCFZ, Gone Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 A Neoteric International Juried Exhibition, the HUD Gallery, Ventura, CA
2015 Current Focus, Red Barn Project Space, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 Likewise, Glass box Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 UCSB MFA Open Studios, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 SUNY Purchase BFA Exhibit, Purchase, NY
2014 Cut/Scrape/Smear curated by Kathy Bradford, Associated Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014 107 @ The American Can Factory, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Group Show, Firehouse Plaza Art Gallery, Garden City, NY
curatorial projects
2022 THUNDER FLOWER emotional labor, Florida Mining Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2021 Higher Love, Florida Mining Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2020 Cribs, LoBo Virtual Exhibit
2019 Pegs Pongs Applesauce, LoBo, New York, NY
2019 Flash in the Pan, LoBo, LIC, NY
2019 Soft Grit, LoBo, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Black Friday 2, George Gallery, Brooklyn,, NY
2018 Dwellings, LoBo, Brooklyn, NY
grants / awards / fellowships
2016 Florimbi Award, University of California, Santa Barbara
2016 Levitan Graduate Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara
2014-2016 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara
2014-2016 Art Department Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara
2012 SUNY Purchase Public Art Commission, NY
2012 PSGA Grant, SUNY Purchase, NY
2011 ICMIS Travel Grant, Bangalore, India
2011 Studio Art Scholarship, Nassau Community College, NY
2011 Firehouse Gallery First Place Award Recipient, Garden City, NY
2010 Art Club Scholarship, Nassau Community College, NY
2005 Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Key Recipient
publications
2022 Folio
2019 Hazy Days Zine
2016 10x10x10xTieton Catalog
2016 Studio Visit Magazine, Volume Thirty One
press / bibliography
2022 "How to Ruin Dinner - Morgan Goldsmith", How to Ruin Dinner, Mary McGovern Treyz (FORTHCOMING)
2022 Mekena Rodriguez, abc First Coast News.
2021 Karline Moeller, "Frank Talks", Art Frankly.
2018 Logan Hanley, "Dwellings: An Inaugural Exhibition for a New Type of Gallery", LoBo Blog.
2016 Jim Logan, "Next Stop, Creation", The UC Santa Barbara Current.
2016 Edgar Rodriguez, Art Experience: Morgan McAllister, Eleutheromania, Wordpress Art Blog.
2016 "Towned - Morgan McAllister", TOWNED, Patrick Melroy
2016 Josef Woodard, “Art Review: Forging New Pathways”, Scene, Santa Barbara News-Press.
2016 Charles Donelan, "UCSB MFA Exhibition 2016", Santa Barbara Independent.
2016 Gabriel Lazo “Grads Present Theses at AD&A”, The Daily Nexus.
2014 Nathaniel Vonk, "Review: UCSB MFA Open Studios Annual Group Show Offers a Backstage Pass to the Creative Process", Santa Barbara Independent
2014 Danielle Kalamaras Reviews “get your kicks with six art pix” For Bushwick Daily, http://bushwickdaily.com/2014/04/get-your-kixcks-with-six-art-pix/,
2014 ART HAPS, Cut/Scrape/Smear: SUNY Purchase BFA Painters, https://www.arthaps.com/show/cutscrapesmear-suny-purchase-bfa-painters_1
2014 ArtSlant, Cut/Scrape/Smear: SUNY Purchase BFA Painters
boards / committees / community involvement
2018-Present Co-Founder, LoBo, Brooklyn, NY
visiting artist lectures
2022 "Satsang: A Gathering of Truth", Florida Mining Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2017 "Death by Air Conditioner", ReSource Nonprofit, South Barre, VT
2016 "Meat and Potatoes", University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
teaching experience
YouthBuild, Winter 2016, ReSource, VT
Teaching Assistant, Art & Life, Kip Fulbeck, Spring 2016, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Lower Div. Printmaking, Cathy Ellis, Winter 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Spatial Studies, Kim Yasuda, Fall 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Image Studies, Laurel Beckman, Fall 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Lower Div. Drawing, Nathan Hyden, Summer 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Art & Life, Elizabeth Folk, Summer 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Visual Literacy, Jen Vanderpool, Summer 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Art & Life, Kip Fulbeck, Spring 2015, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Intro to Painting, Philip Argent, Winter 2014, UCSB, CA
Teaching Assistant, Visual Literacy, Dick Hebdige, Fall 2014, UCSB, CA