Jeffrey Morabito




  • Home
  • News
  • Recent
  • Lost Pets
  • The Endless Year
  • Birds and Flowers
  • Avocado Toast
  • Pizza Rat
  • Monstera Deliciosa
  • Works on Paper
  • 2017 - 2018
  • Archive
    • The Night
    • The City
    • The Sea
    • The Animal
    • The Figure
    • Circles
    • Portraits
    • Landscapes
    • Taihang Shan
    • Drawings
  • Writing
  • Video
  • About
  • Podcast
  • Recipes
  • Contact
    JEFFREY MORABITO

NEWS

Picture
THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

籠中歌唱​

Opening:
9/5/2025 4-8pm


Herald Gospel Plaza
Curator: Lan Shi
Director: Qingsong Hao

42-35 Main Street, 2FL, Flushing, NY 11355


September 5 - October 4, 2025  
by appointment 10am -5pm, call 718 578 3508



The Caged Bird Sings: Jeffrey Morabito's Life Situations and Paintings
Qingsong Hao


Jeffrey Morabito, an American artist of mixed Chinese and Italian descent, has lived and worked in Beijing for ten years and now lives in New York. The cultural fusion that began at birth has undoubtedly deeply influenced his artistic creation, including the ink language he is accustomed to using. However, he does not actively cater to the identity politics based on cultural differences in his artistic concepts, but only lets the influence of cultural attributes stay at the language level.
He said, "I am a New Yorker. The situation and feelings of living in New York become the starting point of Jeffrey Morabito's creation. It is here that sensitive artists can best realize the real life situation, which, in Jeffrey Morabito's opinion, is a "bird in a cage".
Isn't New York the freest place? It is the dream paradise of countless immigrants, but it is also a real hell in a cage. It is as if there is an invisible net that pervades life everywhere. Freedom, on one side of the coin, is a bird in a cage on the other. Perhaps only by living in New York for a long time can you realize that there are some dilemmas that you can't break free from and change no matter how hard you try, and there are some ceilings that you can never reach. In fact, this is a common dilemma in life, no matter where you are. New York is just a more focused representation of the life of a "bird in a cage".
Jeffrey Morabito paints a figurative bird in a cage, with gorgeous feathers and a noble head, but losing its freedom in the cage. The strong contrast creates an unrelenting sadness that pervades almost all of Jeffrey Morabito's works.
The environment of the New York subway is often criticized, but Jeffrey Morabito treats it as an underground theater, surprisingly choosing rats, the subterranean spirits, to be included in his paintings. Jeffrey Morabito empathizes with their darkness and freedom, and therefore gives them unusual respect and honor. There is also the sadness of seeing lost dog and cat advertisements posted in the city streets, filled with worry and hope when love is lost. The skyscrapers of Mendenhall are like a labyrinth in which people lose themselves, forgetting the freedom they once had. The only way to see Manhattan is to look at it from afar, from the perspective of the large cemetery in Queens, to see the battle of life and death in the sky above Manhattan.
An aura of decay fills the colorful landscape, like the futility of the post-war ruins. There were no tears, no bloodshed, and yet it was particularly painful. But Jeffrey Morabito did not lose hope. When he had the courage to paint the subway, the lost advertisement and the cemetery, he has begun to turn around in his grief to sing and embrace.
Some birds aren't meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are just too bright.

關不住的籠中鳥:
莫子偉的生命處境與繪畫
 
郝青松
 
莫子偉,一位中意混血的美國藝術家,曾在北京創作生活過十年,現在生活在紐約。從出生就開始的文化融合無疑深深影響了他的藝術創作,包括他習慣使用的水墨語言。但他並沒有在藝術觀念上主動迎合基於文化差異的身份政治,只是讓文化屬性的影響停留在語言層面。他說,「我是紐約人」。在紐約的生存處境和感受成為莫子偉創作的出發點。
紐約,世界最繁華都市,當代藝術最中心,也是價值觀最多元、最撕裂的地方。敏感的藝術家在此最能體會到真實的生命處境,在莫子偉看來,就是「籠中鳥」。
紐約不是最自由的地方嗎?無數移民的夢想天堂,卻也是真實的籠中地獄。彷彿有一張無形的網羅,瀰漫在生活周遭,無處不在。自由,是硬幣的一面,另一面卻是籠中之鳥。或許只有長期生活在紐約才能感受到,有一些困境無論你如何努力都無法掙脫和改變,有一些天花板你永遠無法抵達。其實,這是人生的普遍困境,無論你身在何處。紐約只是更爲集中呈現了「籠中鳥」的生活處境。
莫子偉畫了一個具象的籠中之鳥,華麗的羽毛、高貴的頭顱,卻在籠中失去自由。強烈的反差帶給畫面一種止不住的憂傷,這憂傷也瀰漫在莫子偉幾乎所有作品之中。
百年紐約地鐵的環境常常為人詬病,莫子偉卻把它當作地下劇場,令人吃驚地選擇老鼠這個地下精靈入到畫中。它們的黑暗和自由都讓莫子偉感同身受,因此給予它們不一般的尊重和榮耀。還有一種憂傷是看到城市街道中張貼的貓狗丟失廣告,背後充滿當愛失去時的擔心和希望。曼哈頓的摩天高樓猶如迷宮,人在其中也丟失了自己,忘記曾經的自由初心。唯有從遠處眺望曼哈頓,從皇后區中大片墓地的視角才看到曼哈頓上空的生死之戰。
一種腐敗的氣息充斥在色彩的豔麗中,猶如戰後廢墟中無能為力的虛無。沒有淚水,沒有流血,卻格外疼痛。但莫子偉並沒有失去希望,當有勇氣畫出地下鐵、丟失廣告和墓地的時候,他已經開始在悲傷中迴轉,去歌唱和擁抱。
「有一種鳥注定不會關在牢籠,它的每一片羽毛都閃爍著自由的光芒」。




Flower Power Show
icebox4.com
53 S 11th St, #4A, Brooklyn, NY 11249

Opens Thursday, June 5th, 2025 6-8pm

Peter Acheson    Katherine Bradford    Jaqueline Cedar
James O. Clark    Jennifer Coates    Denise Corley
Jennifer Croson    Tom Fitzgibbon    Mary Flinn
Judy Glantzman    Dennis Kardon    Judith Linhares
David McDonough    Jackie Meier    Mark Milroy
Jeffrey Morabito    Bill Page    Jackie Shatz
Larry Lee Webb    Gregg Woolard

curated by Tom Fitzgibbon

Show Run: June 5th-June 26th
Scheduled hours: Saturday and Sunday 1-6pm
Or by appointment at icebox4go via gmail
take the East River Ferry to S. Williamsburg,
JMZ to Marcy or L to Bedford
​



Picture

Picture
Picture
I will be exhibiting some ink drawings at this show.

Picture
Missing Mustache, 16" x 16", Oil on Panel
Flat Theater
Jeffrey Morabito, Alex W Rader

November 29- December 18, 2024
  
Opening Reception: Friday, December 6, 6 - 8 PM
37-39 Clinton St NEW YORK

https://www.space776.com/flat-theater
Picture












​Open studio​ Dec 2. 1 - 6pm 

Reis Studios, Studio 217, 43-01 22nd St, Long Island City, NY 11101
Funded by the Queens Art Fund: New Work Grant


Picture

SEPTEMBER 16TH 4PM

Tappeto Volante
126 13th Street, Brooklyn, 11215 NY
917-345-0423


Artist Talk
Pareidolia: Ideas Paradise



Please join us for a panel discussion with Jenny Kanzler, Glenn Goldberg, Paul Loughney,
Celeste Morton, Pol Morton, Hanna Von Goeler; moderated by Jeffrey Morabito
What Pareidolia means to each artist will be explored, and how it is connected to the greater
concept of an “Ideas Paradise.”

Curated by Jeffrey Morabito

Featuring Michael Berryhill, Marybeth Chew, Martin Dull, Glenn Goldberg, Alissa Guzman, Jenny Kanzler, Paul Loughney, Jeffrey Morabito, Celeste Morton, Pol Morton, Jackie Shatz
Hanna Von Goeler




“What he had really wanted to do was to tear a hole in his world and escape.” -Vladimir Nabokov, Signs and Symbols.

pareidolia. noun. par· ei· do· lia ˌper-ˌī-ˈdōl-ē-ə, -ˈdōl-yə : the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful, image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. A faulty form. A wrong shape.
 
Anxiety. Fear. Inertia. These are common emotions we experience in a world of perpetual motion plagued by vague uncertainty and acute isolation. Yet in our collective imagination, there is a hidden place where we go for refuge; an idiosyncratic paradise, where ideas are planted in memories and nurtured by experiences. Every so often we pluck an idea from this garden and bring it into reality, and for a brief moment the world stops spinning. The wrong thing in the wrong place becomes the right idea.
 
As we try to locate ourselves, be it through corporeality or a digital space, the artists in this show redefine the quotidian world through “Pareidolia” with painting, sculpture, photography and collage. Exploring the realm of paranoid disinformation, anamorphic creatures, distorted reflections, and pop dystopias, they face the world through vulnerability.



​


Picture

​Pareidolia: Ideas Paradise
 
“What he had really wanted to do was to tear a hole in his world and escape.” -Vladimir Nabokov, Signs and Symbols.
 
pareidolia. noun. par· ei· do· lia ˌper-ˌī-ˈdōl-ē-ə, -ˈdōl-yə : the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful, image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. A faulty form. A wrong shape.
 
Anxiety. Fear. Inertia. These are common emotions we experience in a world of perpetual motion plagued by vague uncertainty and acute isolation. Yet in our collective imagination, there is a hidden place where we go for refuge; an idiosyncratic paradise, where ideas are planted in memories and nurtured by experiences. Every so often we pluck an idea from this garden and bring it into reality, and for a brief moment the world stops spinning. The wrong thing in the wrong place becomes the right idea.
 
As we try to locate ourselves, be it through corporeality or a digital space, the artists in this show redefine the quotidian world through “Pareidolia” with painting, sculpture, photography and collage. Exploring the realm of paranoid disinformation, anamorphic creatures, distorted reflections, and pop dystopias, they face the world through vulnerability.

Picture
Picture





​Tappeto Volante
​\\\\\ SAVE THE DATE /////

LIBRARY 

OPENING MAY 7, 4 - 7 PM

ON VIEW UNTIL JUNE 18


Group Show

Curated by Glenn Goldberg

126 13th Street, Brooklyn, 11215 NY
917-345-0423


Picture
Tappeto Volante

​Animal People Group Show
Curated by Jackie Shatz, Celeste Morton, and Tappeto Volante
OPENING March 23rd, 6 to 9 PM
On view until April 30th, 2023



Gallery Hours:
Open Thursday to Sunday, from 1 PM to 6 PM
Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday by appointment
[email protected]
(917) 345-0423
126 13th Street
Brooklyn, 11215, NY




Picture
Picture
Excited to be included in the inaugural show @barnsartcenter as part of Upstate Art Weekend: TASTING MENU, August 27, 2021 - December 5, 2021, features 30 artists from all over the world, combining international perspectives with regional profundity. Engaging all five senses, the exhibition aims to examine food as meaning, metaphor, and material, through painting, photography, sculpture, mixed-media technology, and film. 

Robin Antar, Emilie Baltz, Gina Beavers, Nicholas Buffon, Gareth Cadwallader, Jo Ann Callis, Catherine Chalmers, Sharon Core, David Kennedy Cutler, Guy Diehl, Julie Evans, María Fragoso, Daniel Giordano, Lucia Hierro, Sam Taylor Johnson, Alex Kanevsky, Talia Levitt, Rachel Major, Nicole McLaughlin, Tracy Miller, Azikiwe Mohammed, Jeffrey Morabito, Danielle Orchard, Lina Puerta, Nathaniel Robinson, Walter Robinson, Dana Sherwood, Anat Shiftan, Jean Shin, Ian Trask, Edith Young.


JEFFREY MORABITO


The Endless Year


August 16th - 28th


Opening August 19th
Thursday 5-8pm
 
Art Cake
214 40th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232

Picture
Picture
Painting and Curated Exhibition, "FOOD SHOW" Featured in The New York Times


FOOD SHOW
​

March 4th, 2020 — March 29th, 2020
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 4th, 6pm-8pm
131 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday 1pm-8pm
SFA Projects is proud to present FOOD SHOW, a group exhibition curated by Chantal Lee and Jeffrey Morabito. FOOD SHOW explores the relationship between people and food as it exists in the cultural imagination. The exhibition looks at how food participates as a subject today, capable of expressing personal history, cultural mythology, and collective experience; describing a still-fertile ground for the tradition of still-life.

Picture



Discovering The Imperfect Windows of Jeffrey Morabito at SFA Projects
​Review of Solo Exhibition in White Hot Magazine 

Picture
Surface and Sky: Jeffrey Morabito at SFA Projects
Review on Art Spiel by Catherine Kirkpatrick





Gallery Talk: ​Confronting Yesterday’s Traditions in Today’s Cultural Diaspora

SFA Projects
131 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
Saturday February 29th, 3pm

The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently
came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty’s ends. ― Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows


Please join us on Saturday, February 29th, with artists Susan M B Chen, Jeffrey Morabito, and Homer Shew,
​ moderated by Chantal Lee for a conversation on how Chinese artistic traditions influence contemporary art and thought today.





Picture

​Birds and Flowers, Vases and Windows
Solo Show in at SFA Projects

131 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
January 15th - March 1st
Opening January 15th 6-8pm



Hyperallergic review of my open studio as part of Sunset Park Wide Open


I am participating in this year's Sunset Park Wide Open at my new studio at the Art Cake Residency program. There are many other spaces involved such as NARS Foundation, J&M Studios, Brooklyn Arts Fellowship, Target Margin Theater, Tabla Rasa Gallery, Boccara Art Brooklyn and ChaShaMa. 
Art Cake, Studio #4
214 40th St, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Friday, October 18, 12 - 6 pm
Saturday, October 19, 12 - 7 pm
908.635.1756



I'll begin tea​ching classes at Simply Fine Workshops in Chelsea beginning August 21st, please follow the link below to sign up.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-everyday-object-contemporary-still-life-workshop-tickets-67369661471

​Live TV interview on July 23rd at 7pm on "Conversation" on Fios 34, Spectrum 56, RCN 83. 
Live Stream under lifestyles on MNN.org.
 


 
 
Poetry Reading + Closing Party: Sunday, July 14, 3pm-6pm
SPRING HAIKU
Tara de la Garza, Jeffrey Morabito, Nina Meledandri, and Tawan Wattuya
131 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002

Featured Poets:
Griffin Brown, Anne Brink, Todd Colby, Tess Congo,
Matthew Goodman, Anele Rubin, Robin Stout

​


SPRING HAIKU
SFA Projects
131 
Chrystie Street, New York, New York, 10002
Opening Reception: Thursday May 30, 2019 from 6pm–8pm

May 30, 2019 – June 14, 2019
Gallery Hours: Friday–Sunday 1pm-8pm




A recent Interview with me on YoungSpace:
​https://yngspc.com/artists/2019/04/jeffrey-morabito/



​R
ecent reviews of solo show Glossolalia:
​https://deliciousline.org/
http://www.arcadeprojectzine.com


,, 


Glossolalia: How Travel Galvanizes Creativity
1 Gap Gallery, One Grand Army Plaza
Sunday, April 14th, 3pm.
RVSP: Ana Delgado, [email protected] 

A discussion moderated by Hyperallergic contributor, Danny Larkin, with artist Jeffrey Morabito, Fran O'Neill, Benjamin Pritchard, and Beatrice Scaccia.
When performer/vocalist Meredith Monk would explain how to sing, she said that you need to imagine yourself in a spaceship leaving the planet, and that you're trying to shout back to earth. That way the only things that can be heard are the loudest and simplest things.
This panel explores those things that become meaningful to us during the experience of living and working abroad.


​


​
Picture
"Glossolalia" Solo Show at 1 Grand Army Plaza. Opening on January 25th. Open by appointment 908.635.1756.  
Picture
Picture


Leaving a Mark
A group exhibition at M. David Studio
56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, NY
Curated by Martin Dull

​
Opening reception - Friday, September 28th, 6 - 9 PM
to coincide with Bushwick Open Studios

Participating Artists:
Len Bellinger, Paul D’Agostino, Michael David, Mary DeVincentis, Carol Diamond, Martin Dull, John Erianne, Daniel John Gadd, Elisa Jensen, Barbara Laube, Lizbeth Mitty, Jeffrey Morabito, William Norton, Justin Liam O’Brien, Grace Roselli, Denise Sfraga, Becky Yazdan
Picture


Bushwick Open Studios 2018
September 28 - 30
Hours:
Friday, 1–7pm
Saturday, September 29, 12–7pm
Sunday, September 30, 12–7pm

117 Grattan St, Suite 308
​
Brooklyn, NY 11237-1714

​
Bowery Gallery 27th Annual Juried Group Show. 

July 31 - Aug.18
Opening Reception:  Thursday, Aug 2,  5-8 PM
http://www.bowerygallery.org/index.html


Lecture: Trans-cen-der July 2018 Session on July 31, 7pm - 8:30pm at 
Temporary Storage
119 Ingraham St (At Porter Ave), Brooklyn, New York 11237
https://www.facebook.com/events/352143425192800/


​My thesis show got written up, there's a nice section on my work by Zachary Small.
hyperallergic.com/443713/new-york-studio-schools-2018-mfa-thesis-show/
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
I’m included in this wonderful group exhibition at Schimdt/Dean Gallery entitled “Out There”
I’ll be at the opening this Saturday, February 4, from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm

https://issuu.com/chrisschmidt4/docs/out_there
https://issuu.com/chrisschmidt4/docs/out_there

February 2015 - I received the Ruth Katzman Fellowship to spend the month at The League Residency at Vyt in Sparkill, New York.  
August 16, 2014    - Open Studio reception from 4pm - 8pm.

开放工作室
开幕时间:2014.16.8(周6)下午四点-八点


Picture
March 24, 2014     -  China Daily article:  “Swimming in Inspiration"

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sunday/2014-03/23/content_17371397.htm
March, 2014     -  Jeffrey Morabito Solo Exhibition 莫子伟个展‏

“Ideas are Like Fish”  想法就象鱼

开幕酒会: 3月7日 6:30点

Opening : 7th March 6:30pm

展览日期:3月3日 至 4月8日

Exhibition duration: March 3rd to April 8th

LOCATION:        Beijing American Center, JingGuang Center, Suite 2801, Hu Jia Lou, Chaoyang District.

地点:     朝阳区呼家楼京广中心 2801室北京美国中心

METRO STOP:     Line 10, Hu Jia Lou Exit D, walk south one block to the JingGuang Center

地铁交通:           地铁10号线,呼家楼站,D出口

注意事项:

* Our programs are free and open to the public.  Please feel free to share this invitation with your friends.  If you are interested in attending this event please RSVP to [email protected]

报名方式:我们的活动免费向公众开放,欢迎推荐给您的朋友、同事和同学。由于座位有限,如您有意参加,请尽快回复美国大使馆文化处高女士以便确认。电子邮件:[email protected]

*The event will be conducted in English. Light refreshments will be provided.

此次活动将以英文进行。中心将提供简单茶点和饮料。

*Remember to bring a valid photo ID in order to get into our center. No large bags or electronics will be allowed into the Beijing American Center.

请携带有照片的有效身份证件进入北京美国中心。请勿携带大包或电子产品入内。

* The BAC staff reserves the right to refuse entry to anyone.

在少数极端情况下,北京美国中心保留拒绝来宾进入的权利。


August, 2013     -  Artist Residency in Shenzhen at the Da Wang Culture Highland

June 28th, 2013 -  "New Positions"  7:30pm Opening at Projektraum Knut Osper , Cologne, Germany. i
Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
.