by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
In the late '70s, there was an organization called Albuquerque United Artists.
Harry Morris, Mike Hart and Mark Woody became friends through that art scene, and they've gathered for a joint art exhibition called "Collective Madness," which runs through April 14 at the Yale Art Center.
"'Collective Madness' is related to how we three tie in," Woody said. "When I look at our work, I feel a certain craziness going on that's kind of jazzy thinking."
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Woody's painted ceramic sculptures, Hart's large, dense paintings and Morris' digital macabre prints all come from surrealist or absurdist roots.
"It works together because we approach imagery in a whimsical way," Woody said. "Of course, Harry's real dark and disturbing, in some cases, but there's still that play of imagery."
Hart said his paintings lean more toward the absurd.
"We're all somewhat narrative artists, but we're quite different," he said. "I don't consider myself a surrealist, though I think Harry sort of does."
As a general rule, surrealism is drawn from dream consciousness and threatening reflection, he said.
"It leans a little bit toward something that is scary or threatening or frightening and negative," Hart said. "I don't consider my work dark in that sense, but who knows what other people think? It's about paradox. We live in what would appear to be a rational world, but we're not really rational because of our emotions, and emotions tend to replace clear thinking. A lot of my work reflects some of the absurd nature of human activities."
Morris has a printing press in his basement that he uses to make book covers for publication companies.
"They're mainly for either horror or science fiction books,"
Morris said.
He said he has always been drawn to life's darkness.
"I'm a pretty negative person, I guess," he said. "I like that enchanted sense of horror that I see, a kind of bleakness, enchanted nightmares. I've always been
attracted to the weird and unusual. Mainly, I like the surrealists, especially 1920s Paris when it started, with AndrÇ Breton, impresario and ringleader of the surrealists. I like 'ringleader' 'cause it makes him sound like the leader of a criminal ring."
Morris' high-quality digital print, "The Combination," is a layered portrait of a beautiful and dead-looking girl.
"'The Combination,' like most of my work, is a lot of accident and guesswork," he said. "There are probably three different faces in there. One's blended on top of the other; one girl's eyes, her cheekbones are somebody else's cheekbones - that's what makes it odd-looking, I think. It's a combination of photographing friends of mine and finding stuff out of books, like those black-and-white engravings from the turn of
the century."
"Collective Madness"
Yale Art Center
1001 Yale Blvd. S.E.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 1-6 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Through Saturday
