Cutthroat and Nick Morris
Music by DJ Noel
Personality Instantly: The Art of Nick Morris
Featuring evocative, retro-style images, Nick Morris’ art calls to mind a time of artistic girl-next-door pin ups and sleek muscle cars, with a tinge of sci-fi. The pop style he has perfected is both relevant and evocative, putting past and present into the same moment, and giving us all a direct view into the things he esteems most in art and design.
I was born in Ballarat, just over an hour out of Melbourne. At the age of six I knew I wanted to be an artist and, at a similar time, discovered surfing and my passion for the coast had begun. When I was at secondary school, one of my teachers had said only two per cent of living artists make a living off their art, so I decided to become a graphic designer.
In many ways it was a positive result for eventually becoming an artist. I went to Chisholm Institute in Caufield where I met fellow designer Dave Bowers and, over time, we hit it off. After working in Melbourne for a few years after college I moved to the west coast of Victoria and, in 1990, Dave and I started a clothing label called Umgawa. It was incredibly successful but our inexperience caught up with us and from there I went on to become the art director at Quiksiver in Torquay, which had been something I had always aspired to. To be living down the coast working in an industry that molded in around surfing was a dream come true. A few years later I bean my own freelance graphics company called Anyhow, servicing the surf street wear industry working for the biggest labels in the world. The business peaked around 2004 when we were invited to speak at Semi Permanent graphics conference in Sydney and then later at Agideas with a host of international designers.
During this time a group of mates were having an small exhibition in Torquay and insisted that Dave and I put some art in. I had not painted for over 20 years and knowing where to start was a little confronting. Thanks to my graphics business some of my staff had introduced me to screen printing technique that I could do from the garage. With a little Andy Warhol inspiration I created my first batch of paintings and ignited a fire that was soon to consume me. Over the next couple of years I worked on my art in my time off but my passion for graphics was starting to fade. In the particular industry I was in, which in many ways had lost its soul, it seemed like we were just being asked to make copies of successful prints from overseas without getting the client into any copyright issues. Creativity was becoming harder to find.
I started working with a life coach, feeling a little lost for the first time in my life, and eventually worked out it was art that I wanted to do all along, which seemed amazing as it was so obvious to me as a kid. We worked out a plan that I could finance my life if I cut my overheads and did three days of graphics per week and then Thursday and Friday were for painting. It took all the guilt away from thinking it was just a hobby. She also got me to set a date for an exhibition. I spoke to Dave, as during this process the two of us started mucking about on joint canvases after being inspired by the Basquiat film, and he agreed to have an exhibition in May 2007 in Melbourne. So we booked an art space in Fitzroy.
We exhibited both solo and collaborative art and had a sell-out show. For the next show, someone had suggested we should get our own stand at Art Sydney. Once again we sold out and this set me up enough to decide to become a full time artist. We went on to have more sell-out shows and soon found ourselves in both France and Hong Kong. It has been an incredibly successful journey ever since.
CUTTHROAT’s strident stencil works center around politically charged and power-packed monochromatic imagery. His subject matter rings close to the locals of his upbringings, which took him across the Mexico border and back again, in a familial search for a better life. His images refer to the cultures that have underlined his everyday experiences, giving the viewers a rare inside perspective on what we may only understand from a distance.
His signature stencil style is the product of what he calls “a detailed and involved process,” which serves as a Zen-like experience for the artist. Methodical attention, he says, is necessary to be satisfaction with his pieces. “I know that there is a beginning and an end. I always hope that my audience appreciates the detail in my work. If they can notice that, I can be content.”
CUTTHROAT was born in Houston, Texas. After his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia for a few years, then they relocated to Mexico.
His early years were spent in Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi. There in the dusty playground of a private school he tried to enamor his elementary sweetheart with elaborate colorings of his favorite Disney characters. When he was a teenager, his family returned to Houston, where he began “tagging.” The rush of graffiti fueled his craving for more urban art. He delved into the hip-hop lifestyle and sharpened his skill using the East End and the train yards as his canvas.
Now, years later, CUTTHROAT’s art has become a widespread in-your-face campaign fusing striking images and a monochromatic palette to invoke politically charged emotions and cultural embracement. Some labeled CUTTHROAT an iconoclast, but his sincere intention is to shed light using the semblance of individuals who have an enduring spirit of revolution. His contemporary medium has turned into an educational journey. From sticker-slapper to visual messenger, CUTTHROAT has established himself as one of the area’s most recognized artist.
His artwork has been featured in numerous Houston exhibitions, including the Houston Institute for Culture, and was recently featured in San Antonio’s Contemporary Art Month and in-group shows at Art Whino gallery. CUTTHROAT will be profiled in the upcoming “Stick’em Up,” (www.stickemupmovie.com) a documentary on Houston’s wheat pasting art scene.
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