Tag Archives: Morgan O’Hara

Interview: The Concept of Home According to Morgan O’Hara

Having a Private Adventure Embodies My Idea of Home — Morgan O’Hara

Having a Private Adventure Embodies My Idea of Home â Morgan OâHara

Morgan O’Hara – Courtesy of Invisible Habitat

As a child I could go anywhere and was able to explore. I had to ride eighteen miles on the train to get to school, and many times I would get off the train instead of going to school and wander around, exploring the mountains and small villages. I had many private adventures. In some way, having a private adventure embodies my idea of home. When I am exploring something new that I don’t understand and nobody interferes—that is home.

My art, the practice of doing it and not necessarily the finished work, has always been my home. The working process has always calmed me. My practice is like a companion, and I am grateful for this. Many people have to go through terrible times and don’t have a way to calm and stabilize themselves. I feel fortunate to have my art practice.

For more information visit anitarogersgallery.com

Morgan O’Hara at Tübingen University

Morgan O’Hara teaches as Invited Artist in Tübingen

Conceptual artist from New York is guest lecturer at the University in the summer of 2019

Conceptual artist Morgan O'Hara teaches in the summer semester of 2019 as an "Invited Artist" at the University of Tübingen.

Morgan O’Hara teaches in the summer semester of 2019 as an “Invited Artist” at the University of Tübingen.

Conceptual artist Morgan O’Hara will work as an “Invited Artist” at the University of Tübingen in the coming weeks. The American offers the workshop “Life and Meaning” for students of all faculties. Every year, the University invites internationally renowned and innovative artists to Tübingen with the “Invited Artist” concept to provide students with insight into the contemporary art of different cultures. The university welcomed O’Hara on Monday with a reception.

Morgan O’Hara, born in Los Angeles and raised in Japan, lives in New York today. As a conceptual artist, she has dedicated herself to performative drawing and social practice. In so-called “live transmissions”, she records movements and sounds simultaneously with both hands in real time, like a seismograph. “Above all, I am interested in the human perception of time and space,” says the artist.

With her first exhibition Morgan O’Hara appeared in 1978 in Switzerland. Today her works are represented in public collections such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the British Museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Wall drawings are in Macau (China), Kobe (Japan) and Amsterdam. For her artistic achievements, she has received several awards, including the Lee Krasner Award for her life’s work, named after the American painter Lee Krasner. O’Hara also teaches drawing and the “psychology of creativity” at art schools in the US, Europe and Asia.

Morgan O’Hara is the second artist to come to Tübingen as an Invited Artist. In the summer of 2018, photo artist Mohammad Ghazali from Tehran conducted two workshops with students from Tübingen and designed an exhibition for the museum of the university . Within this framework, the first volume of a new publication series of the university, “Invited Artist” was published. What traces the commitment of Morgan O’Hara in Tübingen leaves, the summer will show.

View more on anitarogersgallery.com

Morgan O’Hara Leads Drawing Workshops at the MoMA

Live Transmission Drawing with Morgan O’Hara

Thursday, June 13, 11:00 am & 2:30pm

The Museum of Modern Art

Floor 1, Sculpture Garden

Join artist Morgan O’Hara for Live Transmission, a drawing method in which she tracks the trajectory of movement in real time. For this program, O’Hara will take participants through basic scribble exercises that will prepare them for their own exploration of drawing. No drawing experience is necessary.

Meet in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Rain location is the Agnes Gund Garden Lobby.

This event is free with Museum admission. Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign-up begins 30 minutes before each workshop. Designed for adult participants, but children ages 12 and above are welcome if accompanied by an adult collaborator.

Morgan O’Hara. LIVE TRANSMISSION: movement of the Corps de Ballet of the English National Ballet rehearsing Act 2 of Giselle, London studio. 2009.

More information at anitarogersgallery.com

Handwriting the Constitution: A short film by Bill Antonucci

WHAT WE DO – From Handwritingtheconstitution.com

Handwriting the Constitution is a social art project begun in 2017 by artist Morgan O’Hara. It invites people from all walks of life to meet in public spaces to handwrite the US Constitution or other documents written to protect human rights and freedoms. This art practice was created so that people will know their rights, deepen their understanding of laws created to protect these rights, and helps resist negative thinking. To date approximately 2000 people have participated, both nationally and internationally.

The goal of this art practice is to encourage people to hold their own Handwriting sessions on a recurring basis; to create a physical and psychological space that explores the practice of concentrated writing as an art form, and a process designed to bring people together in a quiet and calming way, all by focusing on human rights. It has been identified as a powerful and transformative form of “activism for introverts.”

Morgan O’Hara has been a conceptual artist for over 60 years. Her works are in the permanent collections of many institutions including: the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC among others. O’Hara has committed her life to making art which observes and renders visible aspects of the human experience of living in both 20th and 21st centuries. – www.MorganOHara.com – Handwriting the Constitution is a natural evolution from O’Hara’s drawing practice into a realm that explores the meaning of concentrated writing as an art form and a way to bring people together regardless of their political leanings.

Still from documentary by Bill Antonucci (2019) Duke Street Films

To date, 104 sessions have been held. Over 1500 people from various fields have participated: education, art, construction, music, geology, gardening, design, history, medicine, education, architecture, politics, to name a few. Sessions have been led by individuals in public spaces: libraries and universities in New York, California, Washington, Kansas, Texas, New Hampshire, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong. Since its inception, this social art project has worked with the US Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and various international Constitutions, each in its own language. Documents are selected because of their focus on human rights and freedoms. The people who attend the sessions choose whichever documents they wish to copy. Writers keep their handwritten pages to share with others and for future reference.

This social art project does not exist as a political tool nor is it meant to create a political group. There is no requirement for any individual to state a political affiliation. In fact, little extended dialogue occurs between O’Hara and participants other than a welcome and help in getting started. The fact that the art project is not overtly political has attracted many as it transcends political affiliation. Anyone can set up a session to handwrite documents created to protect human rights, in any language, anywhere in the world.

To watch the film go to anitarogersgallery.com.

ARTnews Highlights Morgan O’Hara’s Social Art Project

You Can Transcribe and Send the U.S. Constitution to White House, in Morgan O’Hara’s Show at Mitchell Algus in New York

BY Alex Greenberger POSTED 05/02/19

As Washington, D.C., is gripped by another major political showdown, one New York gallery is hosting some rather timely programming.

Mitchell Algus Gallery is currently presenting an exhibition by Morgan O’Hara called “Handwriting the Constitution & Portraits for the 21st Century,” at which visitors can transcribe and send copies of the U.S. Constitution to the White House, senators, and representatives. The show, which runs through June 2, is one of three exhibitions the artist has on view in New York—the others are at Anita Rogers Gallery and Magdalena Keck Gallery.

You Can Transcribe and Send the U.S. Constitution to White House, in Morgan OâHaraâs Show at Mitchell Algus in New York

Installation view of “Morgan O’Hara: Handwriting the Constitution & Portraits for the 21st Century,” 2019, at Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York. COURTESY MITCHELL ALGUS GALLERY

Since 2017, O’Hara has organized more than 100 iterations of her Handwriting the Constitution; the new version marks the piece’s 102nd edition. The piece has only acquired new importance with time, Algus told me in an interview, noting that the front page of Thursday’s New York Times features a photograph of a hand holding a copy of the Constitution. “Morgan’s sort of a force of nature,” the dealer said.

Algus also noted that Handwriting the Constitution is a way of involving members of the art world in the larger U.S. political realm. “The politics of the art world is social,” he said. “Often, the social politics and personal politics don’t mesh well because the social hierarchies of the art world overshadow then.” Handwriting the Constitution represents another attempt to “chip away at that.”

ArtNet News: 22 Unmissable Spring Gallery Shows in New York

Morgan O’Hara has been tracking how she spends each and every minute for the past 47 years, recording daily reports in small notebooks as part of an ongoing series called “Time Studies.” This careful documentation, complete with monthly summaries and annual reports, is being shown with the “Letter Press Editions” she has been making since 1978 and a selection of “Silverpoint Drawings” made on watercolor paper with black gesso. The artist also currently has solo shows in New York at Magdalena Keck through May 13 and at Mitchell Algus Gallery through June 2, collectively presenting six separate bodies of work.

– Caroline Goldstein & Sarah Cascone

NYU’s Artists at the Institute: Mogan O’Hara

LIVE TRANSMISSION: movement of the hands of SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS Independent from VERMONT / addressing the President and the Senate / There is a war going on / seen on Cspan 2 / 2. December 2016. 13 1/2″ x 16 1/2″

Morgan O’Hara (b. 1941) was born in Los Angeles and grew up in post-war Japan. Since 2010 she lives in New York and works internationally. Her LIVE TRANSMISSION drawing practice tracks the movement of peoples’ hands as they engage in life activities – in real time – with multiple pencils and both hands. Following closely the intensity of each segment of an activity, the direction of the line as well as the quality of its intensity is transmitted. If a person makes a gentle movement, a delicate line is drawn. If the action followed is forceful or violent, a correspondingly vigorous line is made. This is done simultaneously and as much as possible without “thinking.” The dialectic between observer and participant, control versus relaxed participation coalesce to form the conceptual base for LIVE TRANSMISSIONS. O’Hara has drawn / performed LIVE TRANSMISSIONS on five continents, since 1989 participating in international performance art festivals in Asia, Europe and the US. More recent project HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION is a social art practice that O’Hara started in January 2017. It is a process by which people come together for a specific time period to handwrite the Constitution. This practice encourages a quiet, introspective process, a form of activism for introverts. As people copy out texts which guarantee freedom and human rights, a strong sense of community is silently created.

View more at AnitaRogersGallery.com

The Red Hook Star-Revue on Morgan O’Hara

Morgan O'Hara in her studio. By Micah Rubin

Artist Morgan O’Hara in her studio. Photo by Micah Rubin

“It’s hard to know where to start with the artist Morgan O’Hara. Since the late 70s, she’s drawn over 4,000 pieces from everyday life — dinner with some lively Italians, a Noam Chomsky lecture, a Taiwanese Lion Dance performance — works she calls “Live Transmission.” On first approach, you’ll see a condense fog of scribbles or a soft web of lines so threadbare to looks like lace. But picking a line (any line!) and following its curve and density, its meetings with the velocity of its neighbors, there’s the sensation of a time warp back to the present that O’Hara had once so intently observed.”

For more information visit anitarogersgallery.com

“Works on Paper” Opening Reception Photos

WorksOnPaper-20 Opening Reception October 11, 2017, 6-8pm

Works on Paper
Drawings by Gordon Moore, George Negroponte, Morgan O’Hara and Joan Waltemath

View the photos here.

Photo Credit: Rachel Kirby Photography

Hamptons Art Hub Highlights “Works on Paper”

New shows of all kinds are opening in New York City galleries this week. Art galleries in Chelsea, Uptown, Downtown and Brooklyn are hosting solo shows, group exhibitions and retrospective surveys. Viewers can check out sculpture that toes the line between childlike and creepy, portraits that are intimate looks into realistic or imaginary worlds and drawings that defy expectations.

DOWNTOWN — Anita Rogers Gallery: “Works on Paper: Drawings by Gordon Moore, George Negroponte, Morgan O’Hara and Joan Waltemath”

October 11 through November 11, 2017

Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 11, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Anita Rogers Gallery presents “Work on Paper: Drawings by Gordon Moore, George Negroponte, Morgan O’Hara and Joan Waltemath,” a group exhibition that aims to celebrate drawing as a primary form of artistic communication.

View the full article on HamptonsArtHub.com

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Anita Rogers

Founder of Anita Rogers Gallery, British American Household Staffing, and British American Talent Management