MORGAN GRIGSBY

 Morgan Grigsby (b. 2001) lives and works in Texas, and is known for his contemporary realist oil paintings that are inspired by his personal experiences growing up on the Gulf Coast as a black Texan. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions such as The Spellerberg Project gallery in Lockhart, Texas (2024) and at The Calaboose African American History Museum in San Marcos, Texas (2023). His numerous group exhibitions include The Big Show, at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas (2023), Assemblage, at The University of Houston Clear Lake Art Gallery in Houston, Texas (2023) and, the student juried exhibition at Texas State Galleries in San Marcos, Texas (2021- 2023). Grigsby was also honored with the Best in Show award in the student juried exhibition (2023) and The Special Merit award at The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (2018).

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 I create paintings of everyday memories from my life on the gulf coastal plains of Texas. These experiences center around my backyard patio and memorialize the mundane. The subjects in my work are close friends and family engaging in outdoor activities and ordinary objects for leisure on the physical flatness of the land. These subjects are all influenced by themes such as the landscape being an integral part of Texas history, the transformation of contemporary black culture to suburban America, and the fast rise in consumerism that both aids and contradicts my tribute to an idyllic modern lifestyle.

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 My work focuses on the history of the changing landscape that I spent most of my life on. I grew up on the outskirts of a small town near Houston called Sugarland. It was established as a company town in the nineteenth century to produce sugarcane within a humid subtropical environment. Unlike other regions of Texas, this area is known for its sweltering summer days and gloomy winter nights that are obscured by dense sea fog. In the past, the climate was notoriously described as a “Hell hole on the Brazos [river]” because of the unpleasant living conditions. As an adult, I learned that the town's enormous success was made possible by the secret exploitation of black labor used during the Reconstruction era. With this information, it became imperative for me to create paintings about the changing landscape and how the suburbanization of land that was once deemed untamable, transformed my culture as a black Texan who still lives in the South.

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 For example, in my paintings, the inarguable sublime of the flat landscape is disrupted by the expansion of homes in the distance that loom over my subjects. This unique view from my backyard as the center of the world also highlights the historical formation of the American middle class. This new suburban lifestyle opened the door to a fast wave of materialism to help mark one's social status. This new form of consumerism is referenced in my paintings through still lives of objects my family owns for leisure such as outdoor clothing and home accessories. Because these products are traditionally used for either consumption or recreational activity, I decided to paint them to emphasize their necessity for modern living despite contrasting with the fading natural beauty of the environment.

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 I use digital photography to capture my subjects and the realistic effects of light around them before painting. The primary light source used in my reference photos is either natural atmospheric daylight or a floodlight used to brighten the land at night artificially. Exploring the various effects of these light sources guides the overall mood of each painting. In addition, all of my work is made using oil paint on canvas to create imaginative color schemes as an expressive yet subtle visual orchestration of brushwork that emphasizes the difference between my objective world through photography and my subjective style in painting. I control both light and color to capture realistic effects of the atmosphere while highlighting a delicate interaction on canvas between my subjects and an intimate environment for leisure that is fenced inside the ambiguous confines of my family home. As a result of this connection, the viewer is invited as a guest in my community who joins me to further contemplate the silence of suburban life.