Ike Morgan’s paintings are the first to grace the walls of South Campus’ Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall

In 2014 Art Center College of Design opened a new home for two of its dynamic visual arts programs—Fine Art and Illustration—at the College’s South Campus in Pasadena. Renovation of the former post office was made possible in part due to the generosity of the Hutto-Patterson Charitable Foundation, providing a dramatic atrium space in the center of the building to showcase the work of Art Center students and visiting artists through a rotating series of exhibitions.

On Thursday, September 11, the Hutto-Patterson will unveil its inaugural show: California’s first solo exhibition of self-taught, Texas-based artist Ike Morgan, which will remain on view through December 5, 2014. “U.S. Presidents and the Mona Lisa” features 16 unframed paintings on paper and two larger works on canvas, reflecting Morgan’s enduring interest in making pictures of George Washington and Mona Lisa.

In these dazzling portraits, composition and coloration are held in an insistent tension while background flourishes and random hatchings threaten to overwhelm the figures they support, resulting in an energetic push-pull between abstraction and representation. Noted arts journalist Dana Boutin is writing a scholarly text in support of the exhibit and Fine Art student Brian Tarpey is writing a parallel piece as an artistic counterpoint.

“The Hutto-Patterson exhibition committee and the entire Art Center community is incredibly excited to welcome Ike Morgan and provide a venue for his inspiring work,” said Fine Art Department Chair Vanalyne Green. “Morgan’s production of a unique visual language while living with emotional and intellectual challenges has provided the College with a platform for a number of related events for our students and the general public. It’s a moving example of how art and design can spur inquiry and dialogue into important societal issues.”

A prolific portraitist and gifted colorist, Ike Morgan’s vibrant paintings feature expressively drawn figures from American vernacular culture ranging from Rick James to Santa Claus. Morgan works on many paintings at once, outlining the central figures, filling in details and signing the works, usually leaving the background for last. He prefers to work on the ground outside and looks at books of photographs, magazines, cash currency and other ubiquitous sources for reference.

Born in Rockdale, Texas, in 1958, Morgan was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found to be intellectually disabled at the age of 18. His work was “discovered” in the late 1980s while he was a patient at Austin State Hospital. Morgan now lives independently in Austin with the support and oversight of a conservator. Morgan’s paintings have been included in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions, including The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, the Art Brut Collection Paris, and the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. His work is represented by galleries in Texas, New York and elsewhere.

Among the activities planned in conjunction with Morgan’s exhibit, on the evening of October 27, artist Althea Thauberger will discuss her experimental documentary/video installation about the staging of Peter Weiss’s 1963 play Marat Sade at the Bohnice psychiatric hospital in Prague. Art Center has also invited Juli Carson, author of The Limits of Representation: Psychoanalysis and Critical Aesthetics, to initiate a psychoanalytically-oriented conversation about mental illness and its intersection with art and creativity. And, the college’s Center for Student Experience is staging a campus-wide wellness day in conjunction with the gallery exhibit.

The collaborative Hutto-Patterson Exhibition committee includes administrators, faculty and students to help students understand the nature of being a practicing artist and professional curator, and also help them apprehend a larger worldview by learning how a gallery generates dialogue with the broader public. Exhibitions are accompanied by public lectures and special events, and woven into the curriculum. In keeping with Art Center’s efforts to increase access, affordability and appreciation of art and design in our communities, the exhibition hall is free and open to the public.

The Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall is located at 870 S. Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, California, less than one block from the Metro Gold Line Fillmore Station. Entry into the exhibition is free and open to the public, as is the opening reception on Thursday, September 11 at 7 p.m. No RSVP necessary.