Sam Morrow "Unfriended" comes from Sam Morrow's Mugshot series.
Sam Morrow, who taught art at Virginia Intermont, is an instructor at Rowayton Arts Center in Fairfield, Connecticut. A native of London, England, he received his B.A. in painting from St. Martin's School of Art. He received his M.F.A. in fine art from the Royal College of Art in London and Ohio State University. His work has been shown in numerous galleries throughout London, New York City, Brooklyn, Columbus, Tennessee and Virginia.
"My work over the last decade or so has dealt with various investigations into the contemporary world of the information age. For several years I painted local landscapes, seen from the car and the road - the way most of us experience landscape in the 21st Century. These are not plein air paintings as such, but based on stills from videos and snapshots. Experience is increasingly second hand. The virtual has become a way of seeing - for good or bad.
"My current paintings deal with portraiture, often downloaded images and mugshots of prisoners and petty criminals. The Internet and the found (or stolen) image has become the visual norm. I feel it is the contemporary artist's role to address this reality, not to disguise it. The image is increasingly cheapened and made more throw away. In the case of my mug shot paintings, I find that the change of context from computer screen to art gallery makes these images something to pause in front of and reflect on rather than to discard and move on from. I often use the casual (and frequently derogatory) statements posted on websites that accompany these images as titles," he says in his artist statement at www.sammorrowart.org
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