Michael Morris

Michael Morris D.F.A. (16 May 1942 – 18 November 2022) was a British-born Canadian visual artist, archivist, educator, and curator. Morris has also completed successful works in film, photography, video, installation, correspondence art, and performance.

Life and career Morris was born in Saltdean, England on 16 May 1942. As a child, Morris was influenced by Herbert Siebner, who arrived in Victoria, BC from Berlin in 1953. Morris was also mentored by Maxwell Bates.

The geometric abstractions he painted he made at the beginning of the 1970s have a sense of parody, one critic feels. He had absorbed an urban aesthetic from British Pop artists as well as the ideas of Marcel Duchamp during his training. Later, he looked to California for new materials, such as Plexiglas and mirrors. Morris' work with the Image Bank has been heralded as instrumental to the early history of networking and the utilization of social interaction as art.

In 2021, his work was included in the exhibition Op Art in Vancouver in the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Michael Morris died in Victoria, British Columbia on 18 November 2022, at the age of 80.

Awards Morris was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2005). He is the recipient of the 2011 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts and the 2015 Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts.