Morehead couple featured at Grayson Gallery

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By Portia Williams

[email protected]

GRAYSON, Ky. —The Grayson Gallery will be back with a new and unique show for the monthly Final Friday Art Walk on July 31, according to Dan Click, GGAC coordinator. The event will include a reception from 6-9 p.m featuring the art of Ryan Morris and Kiara Gabbard.

Click said the artistry of Morris and Gabbard is diverse in style yet flow together cohesively.

“When showing together, this couple from Morehead have widely diverse styles and mediums while presenting a cohesive body of work,” Click said. “With a fresh and youthful take on their art – as well as being talented beyond their years – this exhibit will also bring a new look for the Grayson Gallery this month as the gallery reopens after a brief hiatus for remodeling of the office, kitchen and restroom side of the building.”

According to Click, Morris is an art student at Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky., with a focus in oil painting. He has won first place or best in show art awards every year since attending in 2010 and has been highly active in The Artist Collective, a student art organization at MSU and was president of The Visual Arts Guild his sophomore year.

In dealing with the more unseemly aspects of the human condition, Ryan has developed a distinctly surrealist aesthetic in his work. He takes inspiration from the traditions of art history along with deep, introspective analysis. He aims to stake his place among the contemporary Surrealists scene by developing an isolated, yet extremely innovative style that transfixes the viewer in an otherworldly vision.

Morris describes himself as a surrealist painter and sculptor who purposefully human emotion through his artistry.

“I am a surrealist painter and sculptor who explores the intense ranges of human emotion and the more ambiguous aspects of consciousness. My goal is to pinpoint specific feelings with color and subject matter that coincide with anxiety, depression, compulsiveness and mania,” Morris said. “This direction in narrative stems from an early borne obsession with the field of psychology, theology, and art history. Oil painting is my main discipline and I incorporate classic surrealists techniques into my work such as automatic drawing, where loose mark making is employed with random placement in order to develop a free-associative basis for a composition.”

Morris said he foresees his work being characterized as being that of an expressionist.

“My subject matter is solely figurative with expressionists elements. I’ve always been drawn to the use of the figure as a vehicle for ideas. Currently, I am attempting the distillation of my art into a much simpler aesthetic,” he said. ” I see my work becoming more expressionist and loose as I become more familiar and confident with my vision. My most recent paintings are more focused on elements from my day-to-day life and have a more serene quality to them, as opposed to my earlier works. I’m also focusing on the more formal qualities of painting such as the integrity of brushwork and the proper use of composition.”

Reach Portia Williams at 740-353-3101, ext. 1929, or Twitter @PortiaWillPDT.

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Submitted photo Ryan and Kiara, of Morehead, Ky. will be featured at The Grayson Gallery on July 31.
http://portsmouth-dailytimes.aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2015/07/web1_RyanKiara2.jpgSubmitted photo Ryan and Kiara, of Morehead, Ky. will be featured at The Grayson Gallery on July 31.

Submitted photo | Daily Times
‘White Flower Vase’ by Kiara Gabbard
http://portsmouth-dailytimes.aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2015/07/web1_Vase2.jpgSubmitted photo | Daily Times
‘White Flower Vase’ by Kiara Gabbard

Submitted photo | Daily Times
Untitled acrylic painting by Ryan Morris
http://portsmouth-dailytimes.aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2015/07/web1_Bonkers2.jpgSubmitted photo | Daily Times
Untitled acrylic painting by Ryan Morris

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