Wealth and Hellness - solo show of Josie Morway

A self-taught artist, Morway’sextremely detailed style of oil and enamel painting on wood panels combines the influence of Dutch Masters’ techniques, religious icon paintings, and hyper-modern color and design elements, to create paintings that have been described as “votive cave paintings from the distant future.”

The wildlife in Morway’s work is portrayed with an intense reverence that escalates to surreality, creating paintings that are both politically charged, ethereally poetic, and darkly comical.The artist’s incredible work explores both the fragility and the fortitude of the natural world, envisioning the sanctity of wildlife and wilderness in the face of human degradation and seeking to challenge the assumptions and projections we bring to our interactions with the wild.

Morway’s work was recently featured in a segment about the “Duck Stamp” on HBO’s Emmy and Peabody-award-winning show, “Last Week Tonight,” hosted by John Oliver. In the segment (click here to watch), Oliver shared a history of the stamp, explained that it has raised more than $1.1 billion for habitat conservation, and then revealed that he and his production team were responsible for the entries of fivesatirical paintings into last year’s Federal Duck Stamp contest, one being Morway’s “stunning and conceptually evocative painting,” titled "Duck Hunting Hunters." The winning painting of the annual art competition is made into that year’s Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, also called the “Duck Stamp.” Oliver then auctioned off the five submissions on eBay and donated the proceeds (nearly $100,000) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wealth and Hellness opens Saturday, January 8th from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm in Gallery 2, alongside CHG’s eighth annual Art Collector Starter Kit group show (ACSK VIII) in the Main Gallery and a solo show from Jasmine Becket-Griffith, entitled New Works, in Gallery 3.