Keith Morrison was a painter, printmaker, art educator, curator, and university administrator. Throughout his career, Morrison balanced an active studio practice with influential work as a scholar, critic, and academic leader. His paintings and prints were exhibited worldwide, and his scholarship and curatorial projects were significant contributions to the study of African American and Caribbean art.
Morrison (b. 1942) was born in Jamaica and received his early education in his home country before studying in the United States at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a BFA in 1963 and an MFA in 1965.
Morrison exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally. In 2001, he represented Jamaica at the Venice Biennale – the only time the country has participated in the prestigious art exhibition. Additionally, he represented Jamaica in the 1994 Caribbean Biennale in Santo Domingo and served as the United States’ art critic and cultural envoy to the 2008 Shanghai Biennale. His work was featured in solo exhibitions in New York, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Boston, as well as at institutions including de Young Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Internationally, Morrison exhibited in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Egypt, among numerous other countries.
Morrison’s work is included in many prominent public and private collections, including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art; the Museum of Modern Art, Monterrey, Mexico; the Cincinnati Art Museum; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; the National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
His honors include awards from the Ford Foundation and the Danforth Foundation, the Bi-Centennial Award for Painting from the City of Chicago, the Organization of African Unity Award for Painting, the National Foundation of Art Educators Award, a Fulbright Senior Fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award: Porter Colloquium, Howard University, and the National Gallery of Art. He was awarded the title Commander in the Order of Distinction by Jamaica.
Read CV
