New Jersey-based sculptor Jedediah Morfit uses a bas-relief process that resembles ancient techniques, yet implement modern materials like urethane plastic. These flattened sculptures appear as both two- and three-dimensional. In a statement, the artist explains his influences:
“My work explores, updates, and subverts the history of figurative and decorative sculpture to better reflect contemporary experience,” the artist says. “While the detailed rendering, flat colors, and polished surfaced may reference the aesthetics of architectural plaster, Wedgwood pottery, gutta-percha cameos, or marble busts, the content is decidedly less genteel. In my sculpture, these cultural signifiers of wealth and good taste are infiltrated by images of cartoon violence, frenzied consumption, and clenched anxiety. This contradictory territory; where beautiful images and carefully constructed surfaces conceal desperate realities, is central to in world I inhabit, and (in response) reflected in what I create.”
The artist has had solo exhibitions at Philadelphia’s Paradigm Gallery, Pixilated Gallery in Baltimore, and other spots across the U.S.
