Megan Moriarty
Artist Statement
Through biomimicry and abstraction, my artwork is a way of managing the intangible messiness inside myself— visualizing the part of nature that no microscope can magnify or psychiatrist verbally structure. In sculpture and image-making, I turn to the patterns found in nature and rethink how experiences of wonder can coincide with this moment of crisis. How do we visualize the microscopic landscapes of our own bodies? How do we rekindle our emotional attachment to an overwhelmingly sick planet? Through experimental practices in space, light, and sound, I explore possible answers to these enduring questions.
In tandem with my practice is a wide breadth of scholarly research on the periods of visual history when the known universe came into question — when artists and philosophers and scientists did not have the language to express the unexplainable. In these moments, great minds turned to the vocabulary of the philosophical and spiritual. The philosophies of Wabi Sabi, Alchemy, Theospohy, Islamic patterning, Christian stained glass, and scientific photography created an interwoven legacy of expressing the intangible. Each body of work I produced is part of this inheritance and seeks to redefine visions of the unknown for our time.
Solo Thesis Exhibition Images
Megan Moriarty
Plato’s Cave Installation View ( Curiosities, 2019/ Illuminations, 2019)
Mixed Media (laser cut wood, acrylic encasements, glass enameled slides)
Megan Moriarty
Plato’s Cave Installation View ( Curiosities, 2019 / Five Figments, 2019/ Illuminations, 2019)
Mixed Media (laser cut wood, cast bronze, digital prints)
Megan Moriarty
Five Figments, 2019
Cast Bronze
Various Sizes, none larger than 5 x 5 x 3 in
Megan Moriarty
Five Figments (detail), 2019
Cast Bronze
Various Sizes, none larger than 5 x 5 x 3 in
Megan Moriarty
Five Figments (detail), 2019
Cast Bronze
Various Sizes, none larger than 5 x 5 x 3 in
Megan Moriarty
Curiosities, 2019
Mixed Media (laser cut wood, acrylic encasements, glass enameled slides)
30 x 24 x 2 in
Megan Moriarty
Curiosities (detail), 2019
Mixed Media (laser cut wood, acrylic encasements, glass enameled slides)
30 x 24 x 2 in
Megan Moriarty
Curiosities (detail), 2019
Mixed Media (laser cut wood, acrylic encasements, glass enameled slides)
30 x 24 x 2 in
Megan Moriarty
Illuminations Series, 2019 (Enameled Slide Numbers From Left To Right: 005; 023; 012; 006 )
Digital Print of Enameled Glass Microscope Slide
24 x 48 in
Megan Moriarty
Illuminations Series, 2019 (Enameled Slide Numbers From Left To Right: 010; 040)
Digital Print of Enameled Glass Microscope Slide
24 x 48 in