Morgan Herrin is a Richmond-based sculptor who uses his background in wood crafting and carpentry to help his wooden sculptures more successfully evoke the human form. Herrin's works, which take months (if not years) to complete, are intricate, life-size wood carvings based on archaeological finds that date back thousands of years. His latest exhibition, Ology, will take place next month at ADA Gallery. It features sculptures based on ancient human figures found frozen in ice, and primitive human tools, among other things. Here's a preview:
Herrin's works have utilized wood to mimic materials ranging from the hard surfaces of iron, copper, and bronze, to the more delicate and fragile organic shapes found in nature, from plant and moss forms to bone and skin. In this new exhibition of his work, he takes as his subject the remains of the Ice Man (or “Oetzi” as scientists named him), the mummified 5,300-year-old man that was discovered in 1991 in the Eastern Alps near the border between Austria and Italy startlingly well preserved in the ice, as if thousands of years had not passed. The sculpture, in a similarly vivid fashion, is an astonishing, frighteningly lifelike image of our ancestral past captured in an almost dancing gesture, as if frozen in time for all of eternity to witness.
In his previous work, Herrin created works that harkened back to classical sculpture, using as his primary medium standardized dimensional lumber (2x4's)—planed wood with a smooth finish prepared primarily for commercial construction purposes. His newest work utilizes found, aged lumber, which allows for a rougher, weathered appearance and the qualities of a grittier realism, aligning perfectly with his current subject matter.
The above piece, Untitled (Knight), while not included in the current exhibition, will also be making a public appearance in the near future--as part of the setting for the next Pusha T video, which will be shot in Virginia Beach sometime in the next month. While Oetzi and Copper Gate (top) took 6-8 months to construct, Untitled (Knight) took Herrin a full year, which shows that this kind of intricate woodworking is not something that can be done overnight.
Morgan Herrin's Ology will premiere on Tuesday, April 2, with a reception, for which the artist will be in attendance, held on Friday, April 5 during the First Friday Art Walk at ADA Gallery, located at 228 W. Broad St.