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Born in central Pennsylvania, Rebecca Morgan works in painting, drawing, and ceramics that subvert stereotypes of Appalachia. Imbued with folk tradition and a sly sense of humor, her work peels apart the simultaneous reverence and disgust for rural people. Stylistically, Morgan embraces the hyper-detailed naturalism of Dutch masters, as well as absurd, repulsive caricature suggestive of underground cartoonists like R. Crumb. Often using her own likeness, Morgan’s self-portraiture crescendos to deeper themes that resonate across art history, feminism, and art-making mythology. Although they often contain modern clues, her characters and scenes evoke a romanticized, nostalgic America, nonexistent but wistfully recalled, much like Norman Rockwell’s illustrations. Morgan’s works question what such images were selling in their conception, and she gives her archetypal maids, hillbillies, and dandies the space to explore contemporary issues of women reclaiming their subjectivity, a pop-cultural false sense of romance, and ideas about masculinity, power, escapism, and hedonistic backwoods pleasure. Morgan has a forthcoming monograph coming out in 2024, published by Abrams Books.

Rebecca Morgan received a BA from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and her MFA from Pratt Institute, NY. Press for her work includes The New York Times, Time Out New York, Hyperallergic, ARTnews, Whitehot Magazine, Beautiful Decay, Artslant, Juxtapoz Magazine, The Huffington Post, Paper Magazine, and Berlin's Lodown Magazine. She is the recipient of residencies at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts Residency, a Vermont Studio Center full fellowship, and the George Rickey Residency at Yaddo, among others. Morgan has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, with recent shows including Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, NY; Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Lauren Powel Projects, Los Angeles, CA; The Denison Museum, Granville, OH; BravinLee Projects New York, NY; Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY; Oakland University Art Gallery, Beacon, NY; Western Exhibitions, IL; Mana Contemporary, NJ; Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, NY; The Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; The Hole, NY; MRS Gallery, NY; Marinaro Gallery, NY; Hashimoto Contemporary, CA; Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY; Fisher Parrish Gallery, NY; Woskob Family Gallery at Penn State, PA; Knoll Galerie, Austria; Richard Heller Gallery, CA; Children’s Museum of Art, NY; and SPRING/BREAK art fair, NY. She joined the painting and drawing faculty as an artist in residence at Bard College, New York in 2022.

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan

Melancholia, 2024

Oil on linen

16h x 20w in
40.64h x 50.80w cm

RM094

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan 

The Feeling When Everything's Over and Everything's Fine, 2023

Oil on canvas

60h x 48w in
152.40h x 121.92w cm

RM090

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan

Self-Portrait in Painting Jacket (The week that Granny crunched her hip, Ed Piskor unalived himself, student boards, sore hand sore thumb methylphenidate shortage while painting (this painting) for NADA '24), 2024

Oil on canvas

20h x 16w in
50.80h x 40.64w cm

RM093

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan 

Self-Portrait as Romanticized Painter, 2023

Oil on linen

40h x 30w in
101.60h x 76.20w cm

RM089

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan 

The Graduate, 2023

Oil on panel

14h x 12w in
35.56h x 30.48w cm

RM086

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan 

Self-Portrait at 100 Still Doing All My Favorite Shit, 2023

Oil on canvas

30h x 24w in
76.20h x 60.96w cm

RM083

Painting on panel by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan

After the Storm, 2023

Oil on panel

15h x 18w in
38.10h x 45.72w cm

RM084

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan 

Self-Portrait Getting Back on the Horse (After Delacroix), 2023

Oil on linen

20h x 16w in
50.80h x 40.64w cm

RM081

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan 

Self-Portrait Painting Myself Painting Myself, 2023

Oil on canvas

24h x 30w in
60.96h x 76.20w cm

RM079

Painting by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan
Self-Portrait as Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Face Unwashed, Smoking and Eating Oreos in Bed, 2019
Oil and graphite on panel
16h x 18w in
40.64h x 45.72w cm
RM072
 

Oil painting on panel by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan

Roman Charity, 2019

Oil and graphite on panel

30h x 24w in
76.20h x 60.96w cm

RM063

Oil painting on panel by Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca Morgan

You Can Have It All, 2019

Oil and graphite on panel

26h x 24w in
66.04h x 60.96w cm

RM062