Amy Wilder of the Columbia Daily Tribune wrote a review of the 2015 Autumn Exhibit at Sager Braudis Gallery. Click HERE to read the full article. Below is an excerpt from the article discussing my work.
... Kim Morski combines image and text with context and meaningful materials into dark narratives with humorous undercurrents. While Sleadd’s imagery evolves out of a place of dreams and storytelling, Morski’s storytelling evokes historic events, particularly centered in St. Louis, where her parents grew up and where she spent years studying printmaking at Washington University.
Before leaving St. Louis several years ago, Morski came across the dissertation of Lisa Martino-Taylor, a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia, whose research centered on military-sponsored research conducted in impoverished areas of St. Louis during the Cold War era of the last century. Martino-Taylor obtained declassified documents outlining the extent of these tests, which involved the spraying of zinc cadmium sulfide, possibly irradiated, into the Carr Square neighborhood and the Pruett-Igoe housing complex in particular.
“I have actually met Lisa since I started making my work, and she was actually at the opening for this show,” Morski said in a phone interview. “A lot of this work started after I read her dissertation. ... It definitely hit close to home.”
There’s a cynical bent to her imagery and the narrative thread of her work, coupled with gorgeously executed craftsmanship and artful wordplay. In “Nation Wide Cover Age,” a relief carving on a headboard Morski said she turned into art because she couldn’t bear to part with it, the arched white surface has been carved with floral motifs and words.
Morski takes up a relatively small amount of gallery real estate, but her work counterbalances the physical space with volumes of meaning and impact. She is primarily a printmaker, but sculptural work is also included, objects that reflect the culture of St. Louis and imagery in her prints, like carved, painted wooden bricks straight out of one of her prints.
She takes up the banner of previous generations’ artists who have become political/satirical cartoonists and graphic artists. It’s important to remember that the cartoon is not simply a childish medium but has a long history rooted in charged graphic imagery, like that of Honoré Daumier.
Morski hesitates to claim she is casting judgments on the events that inspired her work, saying she is more interested in examining the cultural impact and the role of people on both sides of the issue.
“It really hit home for me, thinking about my own family members being affected,” she said. “Or possibly being people who were involved. That’s what struck me: this idea of everyday people being part of this larger strategy that they’re not fully aware of.”
