Delcy Morelos
Works on Paper

Evoking sand spirals, tidal sculptures, cell-like clusters, the drawings refer to cycles of life and markers of time.

Delcy Morelos: Works on Paper presents a series of ink and watercolor drawings produced over the last decade. Known for her sculptural installations and paintings, drawing has been a consistent but private practice for the Colombian artist. Shared here for the first time, these small-scale poetic works have the affective charge and intimate register of works produced without the intent to be shown. These works were made for herself.

The works on view in this special presentation shed light on a little-known facet of the artist's practice and reshape our understanding of her creative ecosystem.  Morelos often works on her drawings following the completion of a major installation or project. She describes her drawings as 'exercises' or 'meditations,' as a pianist might describe practicing the scales: a means of meditating on the work she has just completed, or is about to undertake; to ground herself; to inscribe rhythm and motion within a contained form; and to find difference within repetition. Here, the hand works out what is occupying the mind.

The physical world is a vital catalyst in Morelos' work. The works on paper take up the infinite variety of organic forms, patterns, and structures found in the natural world and within the human body. Morelos works slowly on these dense drawings, over long periods of time, often building on simple, repeated motifs that accumulate into complex compositions. In her delicate felt drawings and gauzy watercolors, Morelos pushes patterns and geometries to their ultimate completion.  

Earth, roots, plants, iron, and blood are the substrate of Morelos' work. Her rhizomatic drawings allusively depict these themes, which are taken as both material and metaphor in her larger practice. Evoking sand spirals, tidal sculptures, cell-like clusters, the drawings refer to cycles of life and markers of time. These works on paper are a form of distilled attention, of listening and looking at the world and at herself. Through them, Morelos responds to signs and makes a mark.

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