Aldrich Leatherman Gallery – “Dreams, Myths, and Memories”

Malcolm Campbell Moran -“Dreams, Myths, and Memories”

Opening February 19 through March 31, 2005

Galerie Des Arts
320 Exchange Place in New Orleans

This exhibit is drawn from a collection of paintings and drawings created prior to destruction of huge swaths of the city of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. The work generally foretells of some pending disaster that will (and eventually did) befall the city. Though not claiming clairvoyance, Malcolm Moran’s images of palm trees blowing and houses falling as seen in a dream were an unusual coincidence.

Gallery Statement

Dreams, myths, and memories are illogical, timeless, and real, and they are the subject of an important homecoming exhibit by New Orleans born artist Malcolm Moran, now living in Connecticut. Mr Moran exhibited extensively in the area when he and his family lived in the region, developed a large following of admirers who once again will have the opportunity to see his work. This show will include large works on paper, oil on canvas, and various mixed media

Dreams are the raw material for Malcolm Moran’ s expansive new work. The imagery is timeless, and illogical, and a departure from the linear, black and white world which sometimes can dominate and limit our view of the world. Dreams are real for they speak a truth that is sometimes obscure but is fundamental. Scattered throughout his work are references to memories, cut from the same cloth as dreams, of his childhood in New Orleans. New Orleans in the 40’s and 50’s was, in so many ways, the perfect backdrop for my memories and dreams. Many of my childhood memories involve staring out of my window at the crowns of the palm trees surrounding my bedroom, the cemetery across the street, the smells, the sounds, and the people running here and there, doing this and that. What were they doing?

Like Dreams myths seem on the surface like simple stories, with nonsensical plots connecting strange people adventuring in odd and dangerous worlds. Yet these stories linger — they also are timeless. They connect us by describing a core reality which no other literature can touch. Malcolm Moran’s myth inspired images are meant to embrace this ineffable world.

A graduate of The Rhode Island School of Design, with work in numerous private collections nationally, Malcolm Moran currently maintains a studio in Greenwich, Connecticut where he lives with his family.