Scroll is pleased to present our first exhibition of 2024 featuring new paintings by James Morse and Dylan Williams. 

James Morse uses the imagery of land as a language to explore emotions that arise from contemplating our existence. Recalling the frequent trips across the United States as a child, Morse has developed a strong and personal attachment to the land. Trained as a photographer and graphic designer, the artist turned to painting as a means to develop a closer relationship to a medium that better suited his interests. For Morse, the act of creating – the fabrication of support and its medium – is of equal importance to the subject. The artist’s involvement through each stage of production in the creation of the final object is essential.

In the artist’s own words, Morse states of his practice: “Landscape is a vocabulary that is universal to all cultures. We all come from the land, are nourished by it, and eventually return to it. The land is our oldest metaphor. Using on-site studies from life rather than photographs, [I create] expressive landscapes made with the hand and eye alone. These works embrace the interpretive nature of Being, rather than the mechanical nature of Seeing. Composing poetry with landforms, [I use] a visual language that is more felt than understood.”

Born in 1982 in Hinsdale, Illinois, Morse currently lives and works in Northport, Michigan. This is the artist’s first exhibition with Scroll NYC, and his second exhibition in New York. 

Dylan Williams creates intimately-scaled canvases formed from a deep connection to his surroundings, often drawing from the scenery of his home country Wales, the hills, forests, and fields he has explored throughout his life. Williams uses his surrounding landscapes, whether captured in the shadows of the night or through the subtle light streaming through a window, to explore the metaphysical connections one pulls from the land. Tranquil and muted in both execution and subject matter, Williams expertly captures the serenity of the human’s experience and relationship with the natural world through soft and subtle depictions of light, time, and space.

Born in 1995 in Wales, Williams currently lives and works in London. This is the artist’s first exhibition with Scroll NYC, and his second exhibition in New York. He recently took part in the Freeman Residency in Charlottesville, Virginia.