Simon Morley's Artsonje lounge project presents a selection of works produced between 2000 and 2014 -  ‘Book-Paintings’, ‘Paragraph-Paintings’, a ‘Signature-Painting’, an altered book, and a video. The ‘Book-Paintings’ are hand-made versions of real book covers or title pages. Morley transforms a book into a monochrome painting. In the ‘Paragraph-Paintings’ he paints directly on the pages of books, changing text into colour, and transforming a book page into a geometric abstract painting. In the ‘Signature-Paintings’ he is interested in the visual and abstract qualities of handwriting, and in how a simple change in orientation  (from horizontal to vertical) brings these qualities to the fore. Morley is interested in the relationship between word and image - the verbal and the visual – and the dialogue between the past and present.  He often explores cultural difference and various kinds of media migration, looking at what happens when one medium (the book or film) is moved into another medium (painting).

For this Lounge Project, Morley presents several paintings including his 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (1924/1943/1950), 'The Korean White' series, 'Monograph' series and Chaekgori, and also a wall painting titled Kafka. 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (1924/1943/1950) is a triptych that the artist had created for the Poznan Mediations Biennial. He had referred to three different German editions and each date evokes a very troubled period of German history. 'The Korean White' series paints books written by foreigners between 1895 and 1941 about Korea, and uses white, the characteristic Korean color. Eleven paintings in the 'Monograph' series are based on books about artists published between 1930 and 1965. The color of each work is related to the original book cover and the style of the artist. As such, Morley seeks to connect his studio practice to broader cultural and historical contexts and selects the books for his work in relation to the specific cultural context of locations in which the paintings are exhibited.

About the Artist
Simon Morley is a British artist who had been living in South Korea since 2010. He studied Modern History at Oxford University before studying Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. He recently completed a PhD at the University of Southampton in which he related his studio practice to East Asian philosophical and aesthetic ideas. He has had numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at Art First, London, Taguchi Fine Art, Tokyo, and the Musée des Beaux Art, Dijon, France. In 2012 he participated in the Poznan Mediations Biennial. Most of his works take the form of paintings, however, he also uses other media, such as the book, sculpture, video and installation. Morley is also a writer, and is the author of ‘Writing on the Wall: Word and Image in Modern Art’ (2003), and editor of ‘The Sublime: Documents in Contemporary Art’ (2010). He teaches at Dankook University, South Korea.

*image (left)
Simon Morley
'The Truth About Korea' (1950), 2011,
acrylic on canvas, 30x40cm
courtesy of the artist