ALLAN MORROW: AFTER FIRES
JUNE 13, 2020–January 10, 2021
Allan Morrow was selected as the Grand Prize winner from OMA’s Artist Alliance 2019 Biennial for this solo exhibition. Creating art and expressing himself creatively has been a lifelong pursuit. Morrow’s artwork has taken many directions in many mediums over the years, having used drawing, painting, printmaking, and collage to express his ideas since he was young. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969 and served in Vietnam, and after his honorable discharge had the opportunity to see first-hand the wonderfully diverse landscape of the United States and Baja. Morrow later earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in painting and printmaking from San Diego State University.
The underlying theme carried throughout the majority of his art has to do with the landscape and environment. The After Fires series was conceived on a road trip in late September 2018. During his trip, Morrow was captivated by the bleak landscape as he passed through Shasta and Trinity counties just after the Carr and Hill fires. At the time there were other fires still burning out of control in California and elsewhere. The paintings in this series attempt to capture the surreal feeling of acre after acre of blackened, burnt pine trees and fields of gray ash, in an abstract expression of shock over the catastrophic loss of life and property that accompanies such serious events.