When you look at the work of English painter Alex Gene Morrison you may be forgiven for recalling the monolith from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey. It was a smooth jet-black John McCracken-like sculpture, that proved to be the catalyst for the evolution of a clan of shaggy apes to human status and subsequently the evolution of a human astronaut into a mysteriously glowing space-baby. Indeed, Morrison’s paintings convey the sense of portals, journeys and leaps from one state to another. His monolith’s and ape skull paintings take on a delightfully futuristic and primitive quality while they remain anchored in the immediacy of his methodically textured paint. Morrison’s abstractions also speak of painterly end games and new beginnings or abrupt, sudden arrivals and departures. Kubrick’s 2001 suggests that a minimalist looking object jogged the primitive hominids towards a new horizon and he wasn’t far off, because our ancestors got us here precisely by sketching out crazy new abstract strategies.

Anthropologists now conclude that the counter intuitive willingness of early hominids to run extremely long distances, around noon under a beating African sun, is ultimately responsible for human beings assent to the top of the food chain. While other predators would sensibly find shade and sleep in the miserable heat, we cunningly used our ability to cool off while running after a quarry (facing heat exhaustion because it couldn’t sweat and "Ug!" could). Eventually the pursuing proto-hominid marathon runners simply wore out the bison and antelope. This forced the prey into helplessly panting for cool air--awaiting a human delivered coup de grace. This catapulted us forward to developing the arts of civilization in a way that napping lions could never match. So, if you feel peckish around midday, that is advanced evolutionary destiny telling you something. Equally, the desire to mysteriously disappear down to a gallery at lunchtime to contemplate abstract paintings by Reinhardt, Malevich (or Morrison at Isolation Room) can also be seen as the end point of an evolutionary destiny begun 3 million years ago--around lunchtime in the Rift Valley. Maybe the abstract painting you look at can give you a competitive edge too. DM

Artist Biography: Alex Gene Morrison received his Master of Arts in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2002. In 2000 he earned his Bachelor of Arts from City and Guilds London Art School. His solo exhibitions include: Dark Matter, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, 2010; New Dawn, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff Whales; 2008; New Video Work, Moot, Nottingham, 2008; Adrift, The Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton, 2007; Vile Lure, Rockwell Gallery, London, 2006. His selected group exhibitions include: New London School, Gallery Schuster, Berlin, 2009; The Future Can Wait, Ellis/Rumley Projects , London, 2008; John Moore Painting Prize 25, Waker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2008; Nature and Society, Dubrovacki Muzeji, Croatia, 2007; Fuckin Brilliant, Tokyo Wondersite, Tokyo, Japan, 2005; Faux Realism, Royal Academy, Pump House Gallery, London, 2005. He lives and works in London, United Kingdom.