Independent Arts News Reporting "At First Light" with Rye Tippett and Justin Long at Morpeth Contemporary
Reported Thursday, November 7, 2024. Updated November 20, 2024.
Pictured Above: Rye Tippett: At First Light. Oil on panel, 48 x 72 inches. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Newsroom Post: HOPEWELL, NEW JERSEY
On view now through November 30th, 11 - 5pm
Hopewell, NJ – Morpeth Contemporary announces At First Light, with recent paintings by painter Rye Tippett and sculpture by Justin Long on view now through November 30th. The opening reception was held Friday, November 8th from 6 to 8 pm. Morpeth Contemporary, located at 43 West Broad Street, Hopewell, NJ.
The allusive nature of Rye Tippett’s latest paintings invites thoughts about where dreams join reality, how the past informs the present, and whether the departed commune with the living.
A horse gallops across the morning sky; ghosts warm themselves by a wood stove in a winter field; phantom sea creatures loom above the trees; and a resurrected ship defies the gravitational pull of the vast waters it once sailed, escorted by the ghosts of those they protected.
Those familiar with Tippet’s work will recognize the evocative landscapes, reminiscent of the Bucks County countryside, and hovering subjects, and wonder: Where do they come from?
“I don’t know where they come from, it only just is,” Tippett says. “They come to me like a horse in the dark. It’s all just a dream that never stops working.”
In these dreams, Tippet’s reverence for the past is unmistakable. The former grandeur of man-made machines and historic scenes of peasant prayer are set against sweeping landscapes and expansive skies. Animals like horses and whales also loom large, as if having rushed to the fore to greet us and command our attention. The scenes mysteriously combine the majestic with the humble, the living with the dead, and the past with the present.
Pictured Above: Justin Long: Ruby. Repurposed steel, 34 x 27 x 12 inches. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Justin Long’s sculpture also pays homage to the past. His farm series draws inspiration from agricultural surrounds and the tools that worked the fields from days long gone. Collecting artifacts from surrounding farmlands near his home in rural Pennsylvania Long skillfully reimagines them into new expressive forms, animated by a combination of gesture and abstraction. Their surface – a warm patina of rust and steel– beautifully underscores their years of utilitarian purpose.
Exhibition Details:
Dates: November 8 – November 30, 2024
Opening Receptions: Friday, November 8th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Morpeth Contemporary, 43 West Broad Street, Hopewell, NJ
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11 AM – 5 PM
Contact: 609-333-9393
Learn more about Morpeth Contemporary at morpethcontemporary.com.
