When I was a Painter...circa 2002-2005

Hot 4 Truckers, 2'x2'
Everyone's An Artist Everyone's A Criminal
4' x 4'
Conceived in an Igloo, Born in a Tornado
4' x4
Suicide Pact of Two Disillusioned Trolls
2' x 2'
The Beauty Swarm
2' x2'
Soon The Workers Tears Will Fall From the Heavens
3' x 6'
and
Propeller-box Explosion for Love
3' x 6'
Family Saga
4' 8'
(sadly destroyed)
All paintings are on housing insulation foam. The recessed lines are created by using a wood router. The surfaces are then primed multiple times using a industrial latex primer. Then the process consists of pouring house paint on the surface to build up the layers and form new shapes and textures. Some paintings consist of other materials such as furniture batting, yarn, fabric, feathers, pins and resin. The end result is the evidence of the exploration and play between me and the painting.

Baltimore Open Studio Tour.... Obama! and The Day After.

Open Studio Tour + BF visit from Chicago= Awesome weekend...Here are some later in the day open studio iphone shots. I especially like the late afternoon fall light on the liquor bottles. On our way back we noticed the intricate "trap" set-up in the flower planter outside the Bromo Seltzer Tower (above) HONK! Obama! Sparkles of light, a Natty Boh Pugilist and car coffins. Beautiful!!!

Its all in the details:

Detail shots of studio collage pieces, installations and rose petals on the BMA bathroom floor at last Saturdays Franz West opening...

Last Nights Debate

This image says it all...
Other images from the Campaign trail... These images are the base for my next drawing project...stay tuned!

OPEN STUDIO! Saturday October 18th Noon-5

HELLO!!! You are invited to my studio located in the BROMO SELTZER TOWER this Saturday October 18th from NOON to FIVE O'CLOCK. Stop by #603 and see what i have been working on, enjoy some wine, hors d'oeuvres and art!

For more info on the Bromo Seltzer tower visit:

http://www.bromoseltzertower.com/index.cfm

BROMO is located at: 21 south Eutaw Street, BMORE, MD

Hope to see you Saturday!

luv
meaghan

ps there will be prizes!!!!!

Inspiration

TRUST Opening Images

Long over due images from the Trust Opening at School 33. Thank you to J for documenting the manicures, and the 8 willing souls that allowed me to touch, massage and paint their nails and to Ken at Mimi's Nails in Lexington market for teaching me how to give a proper manicure. So far i have given 19 free manicures. Could you be next?

How We Dwell

How We Dwell: Opening Thursday September 18th 7-9pm at 2625 St. Paul Street #3
More information on the How We Dwell Project at: http://howwedwell.wordpress.com/

TRUST

trust is a prediction of reliance...

MEAGHAN HARRISON SOLO EXHIBITION: TRUST
INAUGURAL MEMBERS GALLERY EXHIBITION AT SCHOOL 33 ART CENTER

BALTIMORE, MD: Meaghan Harrison is pleased to announce the opening reception of her first solo exhibition in Baltimore, TRUST at School 33 Art Center, a project of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. An opening celebration takes place Saturday, August 23, 2008 from 6-9pm with a performance by the artist taking place from 7-8pm. The exhibition runs from August 7 through September 6, 2008. School 33 Art Center is located at 1427 Light Street Baltimore, MD 21230. The gallery is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10am-4pm, with extended hours on Thursdays from 10am-7pm and Saturdays 12-4pm. This exhibition is free and open to the public.

Death, ceremony, human relations, economics and waste are the main themes that drive the current body of work by Meaghan Harrison. Which comes together in the form of sculptures (totemic memorials), collages and the performance piece Trust. As defined, trust is a prediction of reliance, an unwritten code of ethics that is based on what one party knows about the other. The work exhibited aims to communicate our blind faith in everyday confrontations from the state of our economy and beliefs, to our relationships and mortality.

Collected liquor bottles, lottery tickets, sewn crepe, dumpster-dived furniture and the odd dollar store item come together to create Harrison’s totemic memorials. Authentically aged, the totems come together though accumulation and are ceremoniously arranged. Not unlike paying homage to a deity or spirit that asks you to step into their sphere of exchange. In the Trust performance the artist invites one viewer at a time to enter a military parachute turned tent to receive a free manicure in exchange for conversation. This intimate experience within a gallery creates an environment for viewer and artist to engage in conversation.

ARCHIMAGE Opens 05-17-08

Stills from HOLD FAST

Selected Stills from HOLD FAST

Photos: Shane Carpenter

HOLD FAST

Watch HOLD FAST

Thesis Show Images

Finally! Thesis show images!

Hold Fast began November 2007, finalized March 2008, erected in 7 days and destroyed in 2 (these were sad days indeed). But the time it was up and alive was incredible. Thank you to everyone who laboriously assisted me from the start to the end, the amazing responses, feedback and support. Especially S & J, i could not have done this without you guys.
Still working on posting the video. If you are interested i can email you the quicktime file. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Love,
meaghan









ps Unforgettable, everlasting, for all time gratitude to shane for taking ALL the photos. Mucho Amour...

Artist Statement 08

Exploration and discovery is integral to my art making process. In my work I am a hunter and gatherer of both discarded materials and the ephemera of consumer society. I’m a pilgrim and voyager to mostly forgotten places in both the natural world and the fiercely domestic, and I appropriate these discoveries into my personal mythos. I’m also a builder, recreating these materials as new.

Using the model of an environmental sociologist I use my physicality to explore the material landscape. I collect and forage liquor bottles, lottery tickets, discarded packaging and cardboard and treasure the dumpster-dive jackpot. I strive for thoughtful repurposing of objects that were made to be thrown away. Like an anthropologist, I look for information that resides in the waste left behind, and through repurposing a new shape and character emerges. I don’t intend to elevate the consideration of garbage in a banal way.

Gathering a sense of place in a presumably tiny niche of global space is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. I document these journeys with photographs, collected bits of ephemera, make notes, and sometimes talk to strangers. I’m fascinated by the amount of things thrown away, especially in light of elaborate recycling programs offered in most major cities. Environmentalism and “green” has made our society increasingly aware of our impact on nature, however, we still remain mostly disconnected. What I am most interested in is the relationship of our personal ecology inside of a highly material-based world.

In the studio, these journeys and collections build up to create sculptural narratives, performances, and photos. The installations strive to comment on ideas in a way that is sometimes offbeat and humorous, sometimes dark and contemplative.

My work is a continuous investigation of creating myths within environmentally sensitive spaces that held or hold promise as beautiful spaces for people to go to and that are often taken for granted. These spaces can be reservoirs, parks, graveyards, vacant lots, wooded areas surrounding golf courses and seemingly, innocuous ball fields. In my work pilgrimages, voyages and physical work are very important to building a relationship to the site. Most often it is a meditative process with hopes of discovery of a place that I find a personal connection with. The journey is vital to the building of a personal mythology to a specific place and helps to form a system of personal symbols. Much of this process is intuitive and has distinct ties to my personal history.

Meaghan Harrison
Spring 2008

Work 2007: The Three L's

The Three L’s, 8’ x 4’ x 4’, collected/found, given and archived objects: awards medal, roses, table, plexi-glass light fixture, liquor bottles, birds with feathers, crystal sun-catchers, crepe paper and ribbon, 2007



detail

Memorial Fangs : Work 2007

Memorial Fangs, 6’ x 3.5’, collaged diamonds and pencil on paper (meant to be wheat pasted to a brick wall as graffiti) 2006-07

Rolex Is King! Work : 2007

Rolex is King!, 5’ x 3’, collaged watches from fashion magazines and catalogs.

Universal Tools : Work 2007

Universal Tools, platform measures 3 feet at widest width, by 6 feet in length, 1 foot at smallest end by 5 inches high. fixture cord to wall, variable depending on space, packing Materials, fluorescent light fixture, scissors, Styrofoam box, oak platform.

With God...All Things are Possible : Work 2007

With God, All Things are Possible, Dimensions Variable, found/given materials ranging from plastic shopping bag, holiday decorations, plastic birds and feathers, award ribbon, plastic "gem" containers and light fixture.

Deer Run

Sweet 16

Hello, Hello! MICA Thesis Exhibition

Hello Hello! We are pleased to announce the culmination of two years of graduate study at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hello, Hello exhibits the work of fourteen artists from the MFA Graduate programs of Graduate Photography, Graphic Design, Rinehart School of Sculpture and the Mount Royal School of Art. Hello, Hello opens March 28th from 5-7 p.m. in the Decker, Meyerhoff and Fox 3 Galleries. There will be three performances, 5-6 p.m. in the Fox 3 Gallery and 6:15-6:30 p.m. in the Meyerhoff Gallery. All artists will be speaking about their work on April 2, from 1-4 p.m. in the galleries. MICA is located at 1303 West Mount Royal Avenue, Baltimore, MD.

We hope to see you there!

Exhibition Resume

Selected Group Exhibitions

2008

Trust, Solo Exhibition, School 33 Members Gallery, Baltimore, MD.

Archimage, Gallery Four, Baltimore, MD Opens this Saturday 5-10 pm

Paradigm Shift, MCAD Alumni and Friends honor Kingi Akagawa, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN.

MFA Thesis Exhibition, Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.

2007
MFA Biennial, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE.
The Telephone Project, 37th Annual Pilsen East Artists Open House, Chicago, IL.
Curated by Adam Radeski (traveling group exhibition)
Small Wonders, Jordan Faye Contemporary, Baltimore, MD.
NOW: MFA First Year Thesis Exhibition, Pinkard Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
LOTTA Art Exhibition, School 33, Baltimore, MD.
A Vague Spatial Area, Fox Three Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art,
Baltimore, MD. (Mount Royal School of Art Group Exhibition)

2006
The Red Show, ZUNI Gallery, Ferrara, Italy. Curated by Rachel Bradley. www.zuni.it
Janus, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD. Curated by Sarah Tanguy.
LOTTA Art Exhibition, School 33, April 2007, Baltimore, MD.
The Telephone Project, BLOC Studios, Chicago, IL. Curated by Adam Radeski.
(Traveling Group Exhibition)
Which is Kind of Interesting, Fox Three Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. (Mount Royal School of Art Group Exhibition)

2005
New Work, School 33, Baltimore, MD. Jurors: Nora Sturges, Darcie Alexander, Tony Shore and Sam Christian Holmes. (Solo Exhibition within group)
Summer Sweet, Gallery Imperato, Baltimore, MD.

2004
Makin’ Art and Breakin’ Hearts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN.
(permanent installation)

2003
Sweet Dreams, No Name Exhibitions at the Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN. Juror: Frankllin Sirmans.
Access Only Exhibition at Express, Mall of America, Bloomington, MN.
Curated by Ben Heywood

Solo Exhibitions

2008 Trust, School 33, Baltimore, MD.
2005 Meaghan Harrison, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore, MD.
2002 Target Corporation Headquarters, Minneapolis, MN.
2002 Spyhouse, Minneapolis, MN.

Artist Residencies

Vermont Studio Center, January 2009, Johnson, VT.
Franconia Sculpture Park, Painter in Residence, May 2004 through August 2004, Shafer, MN.
No Name Exhibitions at the Soap Factory, Emerging Artist Studio Residency, May 2003 through November 2003, Minneapolis, MN.

Awards and Selected Bibliography

2008-2009 MICA Graduate Fellowship Studio, Bromo Seltzer Tower, Baltimore, MD.

2009 Vermont Studio Artist Grant
2006-08 Mount Royal School of Art Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art,
Baltimore, MD.
2006 State of the Art, Urbanite Magazine, May 2006 issue,
Contributing Critic, J.W. Mahoney.
2006 What’s in a Name, Baltimore City Paper April 12, 2006, By Bret McCabe.
2006 Americorps Education Award, Baltimore, MD.
2005 The “It List”, Baltimore Magazine, June 2005 Issue.
2005 Critics Choice: Art, Baltimore City Paper, May 11, 2005.
2002 Merit Scholarship, Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
2000-2002 Cari De-Wall Uptown Schlorship, Minneapolis, MN,
1998-2002 Opportunity Grant Recipient, Minneapolis, College of Art and Design.

Education

2008 MFA Mount Royal School of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art.
2002 BFA in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Magna Cum Laude.
2001 Study Abroad Program at the Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Ireland.