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Devin N. Morris is a Baltimore born, Brooklyn based artist who is interested in abstracting American life and subverting traditional value systems through the exploration of racial and sexual identity in mixed media paintings, photographs, writings and video. His works prioritize displays of personal innocence and acts of kindness within surreal landscapes and elaborate draped environments that reimagine the social boundaries imposed on male interactions, platonic and otherwise. The use of gestural kindnesses between real and imagined characters are inspired by his various experiences growing as a black boy in Baltimore, MD and his later experiences navigating the world as a black queer man. Memory subconsciously roots itself in the use of familiar household materials & fabrics, while symbolically he arranges it. Looking to buoy his new realities in a permanent real space, Morris posits his reimagined societies as a prehistory to futures that are impossible to imagine.
Devin is also the editor of the great collaborative effort 3 Dot Zine, which is an annual publication that celebrates the futurity of minorities, in addition to serving as a forum for invited artists to center and elaborate on marginalized concerns. He has exhibited in America and Brazil, with short stories and visual works also appearing in NYU’s ISO Magazine, Nii Journal (London), Picture Newspaper and Packet Bi-Weekly Zine amongst others. He recently hosted the first Brown Paper ZIne & Small Press Fair for Black & PoC Artists at MoCADA Museum in Brooklyn, NY in January, and, in collaboration with KAHLON, The Agency, will host the second iteration in Baltimore, MD this April. He will release the third issue of 3 Dot Zine in Summer 2017.
Devin N Morris
b. 1986, Baltimore, Maryland
Education
09/10 B.A., Towson University – Journalism and New Media 07- 09
07/09 B.A., University of Maryland Eastern Shore - Fashion Merchandising
Solo Exhibition
2015 Grey Areas, Smooch Cafe, Brooklyn, New York
2014 Avocado Mango Video, Molasses Bookstore, Brooklyn, New York
Group Exhibition
2016 Torrent Tea, Newspace Photo Center, Portland, OR
COLORED, Carpenters Union, Tacoma, WA
Queering Space, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
Baltimore Boy; Reading 3 Memories, Fleischer Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA
Cold Open Verse, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY
Cold Open Verse, Knockdown Center, Queens, NY
JRR & ROY, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Samples, Derrick Adams Studio, Brooklyn, NY
After-Facts, Gallery 102 at George Washington University, Washington DC
The Ointment, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
PEOPLE 4 PEOPLE, Gallery CA, Baltimore, MD
w e l c o m e w e l c o m e, Platform Gallery installation at Artscape Art Fair, Baltimore, MD
Social Sunday, Platform Gallery, Baltimore, MD
R U 4 Real: AN Exhibition on Authenticity and Anger, BUFU Studios, Brooklyn, NY
6th Annual Zine & Self-Published Photo Book Fair, Baxter Street Camera Club of New York, New York, NY
An Exhibition on Authenticity and Anger, BUFU Studios, Brooklyn, NY
Common Sense(s); A Photo Zine Exhibition, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Common Sense(s); A Photo Zine Exhibition, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, N
2015 Zine Library, Regis Center for Art - West Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Derrick Adams/The Holdout, Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
Kaleidoscope NYC, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
Date Night Salon, Curator’s Home, Brooklyn, NY
Publications
2016 Baltimore Boy: 3 Short Stories by Devin N Morris, New York Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY
1 1 Conveniences
2015 Issue 2: Gray Areas, 3 Dot Zine, Smooch Cafe, Brooklyn, NY
Waking Up Black (Special Edition Poster), Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art,
Newark, NJ
2014 Issue 1: 3 Dot Zine, Molasses Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY
Panel Discussion
2016 Stepping Out; Adorning the Black Body Panel, Impact Hub Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
Common Sense(s) - A Photozine Panel Discussion, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
2015 Studio Squared: Zine Workshop, Studio Museum In Harlem, Harlem, New York, NY
Book Fairs
2016 The 6th Annual Zine and Self-Published Photo Book Fair, Baxter Street Camera Club of New York,
New York, NY
Pioneer Works Zine Exchange, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY
Seventh Annual Publication and Multiples Fair, Baltimore Design School, Baltimore, MD
Bruce High Quality Foundation Book Fair, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Skin and Bones Indie Book Fair, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
28th Loisada Festival, Avenue C, New York, NY
BLACKNUSS Pop Up Shop at The Studio Museum of Harlem, Studio Museum of Harlem
New York, NY
2014 Afro Punk Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Residency
2014 Residencia São João, São José do Vale do Rio Preto, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Selected Bibliography
2016 "New York's Most Interesting Zine Fair Is This Weekend" VICE, June 11
"Why Photo Zines Are More Important Than Ever," VICE, March 23
"Inner City Life Meets Fashion in These Video Collages," The Creators Project; VICE, March 15
2015 “Meet #TVBPArtistInResidence: Devin Morris @3dotzine,” The Very Black Project, August 4
“The Distinctive Collages of Mixed Media Artist Devin Morris,” AFROPUNK, July 9
“Devin Morris on His 3 Dot Zine,” True Laurels, April 22
“The Purest Joy: A Conversation With Devin Morris From 3 Dot Zine,” Lete Mag, April 8