Jedediah Morfit, One Footed Trauma Vessel, 2024, fiberglass reinforced plaster, paint, 29.5"h x 14.75”w x 2.5”d

Jedediah Morfit: Your Myths Are Trash 
January 9 – February 2, 2025 

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Paradigm Gallery + Studio is pleased to present Your Myths Are Trash, a comprehensive solo exhibition chronicling moments in time throughout the sculptural practice of Jedediah Morfit. In his most recently developed pieces, Morfit will unveil the newest iteration of his plaster fabrications that juxtapose traditional forms and techniques with a grotesquely comic visual language in service of a deeply skeptical view of human behavior, including self-reflection.

In Your Myths Are Trash, refined modeling and careful attention to process that have long been hallmarks of Morfit’s work have been infused with the lurid colors and cartoon silhouettes that the artist has been developing for years in his drawings and animations, often separated from his sculpture.

The artist’s increasingly spontaneous approach to modeling, color, and material can be seen through the inclusion of standout pieces from earlier collections. Each of the featured works takes command of the room through their surprising form, saturated color, and sardonic humor, and provide further perspective on the lines of inquiry that characterize Morfit’s newest series.

“I have always been a fan of fantasy. It is a genre I define broadly - Mad Max and Marvel movies, certainly, but also stories by Stephen Millhauser, songs by Aesop Rock, ukiyo-e prints by Yoshi Toshi, or sculptures by David Altmejd. I am open to anything that puts a bright and unfamiliar wrapper around something plain and true. 

The pleasures of creating in this vein are two-fold. First, it extends a compelling invitation to bend the world into shapes that better reflect what we feel, wish for, or dread. Second, it provides a liberating psychological distance from feelings that would be otherwise hard to express. Like Perseus hunting the Gorgon, it is often safer to look at demons through their reflections on a shield.

In creating this work, I was reminded of the decorator crab, which protects itself by covering its shell in carefully curated fragments of the world it inhabits. These brightly colored objects were created in much the same way and for many of the same reasons. Cobbled together from everything I love (gothic altarpieces, architectural ornaments, outsider art, action figures, decorative vessels, vintage posters, cartoons, comic books, etc.), their absurd humor, strange juxtapositions, and exaggerated forms provide cover for those vulnerabilities that I cannot expose or confront directly." –Jedediah Morfit

A passionate draughtsman and long-time illustrator, Your Myths Are Trash marks the first time Morfit will be presenting his two-dimensional work in a gallery setting and reflects the artist’s commitment to integrating the spontaneous and instinctive quality of his drawings with the slow and careful processes of his sculpture. A looped animation included as part of the installation becomes a kind of imagined storyboard - a window into the previously invisible mental whirlwind that has always been at the heart of his meticulous sculptural practice. This inclusion inspires the audience to look beyond the evident survey of Morfit’s technical skill and seek out the ever-expanding lore behind the artist’s work.

Jedediah Morfit: Your Myths Are Trash will be on view on the second floor of the Paradigm Arts Building (12 N. 3rd St) starting January 9, 2025 through February 2, 2025.

About Jedediah Morfit
Jedediah Morfit received his MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, where he was awarded the Sylvia Leslie Herman Young Scholarship and the Award Of Excellence. He was a Fellow at the Center For Emerging Visual Artists from 2007-2009, and received a New Jersey Council On the Arts Fellowship for sculpture in 2009. He received the Louise Kahn Award for Sculpture from the Woodmere Art Museum in 2006, and was awarded the Dexter Jones Award for Bas Relief from the National Sculpture Society in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, he was commissioned to create a series of new work for Artlantic:Wonder, which was named one of the 50 best public art projects in the Public Art Network’s Year in Review. His work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions, and featured in The New York Times, Sculpture Review, Artnews and American Craft Magazine, as well as on NJTV’s State Of the Arts. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three (count ‘em, three) children.

About Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Paradigm Gallery + Studio® was established in 2010 by co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston. The gallery exhibits meaningful, process-intense contemporary artwork by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world, with a focus on Philadelphia. In 2023, Paradigm moved locations and opened its new 5-story, 7,000 sq. ft. home, The Paradigm Arts Building, in Old City, Philadelphia. Open to the public, the building boasts multiple floors of exhibition space, integrated in-house design and printmaking, a dedicated events floor, and art advisory offices. With this, Chen and McCorriston expanded their vision for the greater Philadelphia arts community. The gallery is at the heart of this vision, anchoring Paradigm’s overall mission of increasing access to the commercial art world, supporting artists and advancing their careers, and collaborating with like-minded partners to build a more equitable, sustainable arts economy for all.

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EXHIBITION HOURS
Thursdays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Fridays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays • 11 AM – 6 PM
Sundays • 11 AM – 5 PM
And by appointment outside of hours.

MEDIA CONTACT
For all inquiries contact info@paradigm-gallery.com

LOCATION
12 N. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

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