Alison Moritsugu
Alison Moritsugu was born and raised in Hawaii and left the islands after highschool. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, she earned a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York. On return visits to Hawaii, she noticed the drastic changes to the local landscape. These observations informed her most recent series, Paradise Revisited. In these works, she uses Hawaii’s most invasive plants for decorative wallpaper, paints scenes of the very last pineapple and sugarcane fields, and creates objects which combine ancient culture with European motifs and tourist souvenirs in order to explore the concept of ’paradise.’ Although Hawaii is the world’s most isolated archipelago, changes occurring to these islands are indicative of the changes affecting all our personal paradises.
Her ongoing series of log paintings examines contrivances in landscape paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries. These landscapes, by artists such as Bierstadt and Church, were deeply rooted in the political constructs of the time and depicted the land as a bountiful Eden, a limitless frontier that seemed to await man’s eventual conquest. Moritsugu takes these images out of a familiar context and contrasts them with real wood and bark, to show that the very idea of landscape implies a human dominance.
Her work has been exhibited in solo shows at The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, HI; Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, MA; Littlejohn Contemporary, NY; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI and the Knoxville Museum of Art, TN. Group exhibitions have included the Palmer Museum, Pennsylvania State University, PA; Maier Museum of Art, VA; Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, VA; Art Museum at Florida International University, FL; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, MO; Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY and Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery, NY.
She received a New York Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellowship and has participated in residencies at the Cité International des Arts, Paris; Yaddo, NY; MacDowell Colony for the Arts, NH; Djerassi Resident Artists Program, CA; the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program, NY and the Artist in the Marketplace program at the Bronx Museum of Art.
- 2007
- Paradise Revisited, The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, Honolulu, HI
- 2005
- Natural Perspectives, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, MA
- 2003
- Selected Views, Beacon Project Space, Beacon, NY
- 2001
- The Landscape Within, Littlejohn Contemporary, New York, NY
- Beyond the Frame, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
- 2000
- Paradise Lost, Littlejohn Contemporary, New York, NY
- 1999
- Alison Moritsugu: A Landscape of Promise, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
- 1998
- Of Nature and Conquest, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY
- 1996
- The Forest and the View, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
- 2008
- Down By the Riverside: Inspired by the Hudson, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY
- Repositioning the Landscape, curated by Jennifer McGregor, Westport Art Center, Westport, CT
- 2007
- Environmental Renaissance, Natural World Museum at San Francisco City Hall, CA
- 2006
- Utopia, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
- Survive/Thrive/Alive, Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery, Bronx, NY
- Arbor, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, MA
- 2005
- PpAaIiNnTtIiNnGg, ParaSite Art Space, Beacon, NY
- B5: Five Artists from Beacon, Kleinert/James Art Center, The Woodstock Byrdcliff Guild, Woodstock, NY
- The Power of Place, The Berkshire Hills and Beyond, Berkshire Museum of Art, Pittsfield, MA
- The Nature of Things, Islip Museum of Art, East Islip, NY
- Trouble in Paradise, curated by AmyLipton, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA
- This must be the place, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
- 2004
- Rustic Artifice, Germaine Keller Gallery, Garrison, NY
- Outside: Contemporary Landscapes, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY
- Beginning Here: 101 Ways, an exhibition of works by 101 distinguished alumni of the School of Visual Arts, curated by Jerry Saltz, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY
- Trouble in Paradise, Vanbrunt Gallery, New York, NY
- Exquisite Corpses Today: 25 Curiosities Commissioned by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
- Intimate Purlieus, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- Artists Choose Artists, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
- 2003
- Imaging the River, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
- On and Off the Wall: New York Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellows, curated by William Stover, Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, NY
- Look Up! Contemplating the Skies, curated byThomas Woodruff, New York Academy of Sciences, New York, NY
- The Big Tree Project, Bedford Gallery, Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
- Paradise Paradox, Castle Gallery, The College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY
- 2002
- The View from Here: The Contemporary Landscape, Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, Lynchburg, VA
- The Morals of Nature: Manifest Destiny and the Contemporary American Landscape, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, ID
- Cabinets of Wonder/Redux, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
- Artists to Artists: A Decade of the Space Program of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, ACE Gallery, New York, NY
- 2001
- Shaping Stories, Bellevue Museum of Art, Bellevue, WA
- All-Terrain: An Exploration of Landscape and Place, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA
- 2000
- Fantasies & Curiosities, Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL
- Information, Interpretation, Revelation, Littlejohn Contemporary, New York, NY
- The Great Novel Exhibition, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
- On the Horizon: Landscape at the Millennium, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ
- 1999
- New Visions of the Landscape, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
- Introductions, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- As Far as the Eye Can See, City Gallery Chastain, Atlanta, GA
- 1998
- The Mind’s Eye, Contemporary Landscapes, curated by Holly Block, Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
- Inside Outside, Transamerica Pyramid Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Reading Between the Lines, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- 1997
- Re-presenting Representation III, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
- Out of Eden, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
- Ornament and Landscape, On the Nature of Artifice, Apex Art, New York, NY
- The Intimate Brush, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
- 1996
- Splash: Sculpture, Paintings, Photography, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY
- Natural Phenomena: Exploring the Wonders of Nature, Bedford Gallery, Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
- Field and Stream, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY
- 1995
- Made To Order, America’s Most Wanted Paintings, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
- 1995 Artist Showcase Exhibition, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
- Artist in the Marketplace 15th Annual Exhibition, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY