By By Sara Kay, Assitant Pride Life Editor

“I am a picture-maker and look at the world with a positive vision,” said Burton Morris in the pamphlet about his latest art exhibit at the University in the Emily Lowe Art Gallery entitled Burton Morris: Pop! 
The exhibit, which was presented to the directors of the gallery by a University faculty member, is part of the post-pop era.  According to Karen Albert, the Assistant Director for Exhibitions and Collections, Morris’s exhibit in the gallery has several inspirations for his work. 
“He is influenced by pop-art; artists like Andy Warhol, Keith Harring, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselman.  For this exhibit, Morris wanted to get pieces that represented his best work.”
The collection is separated around the gallery into sections; each one with a certain theme to it.  His manipulation of colors in each series of paintings is how Morris achieves his pop-art style, said Albert.  “He uses images as icons, not in a realistic manor.  He uses broad areas of flat color, hatch marks to show emotion and extremely bold and vibrant colors.”
“My fascination with icons as a pictorial language is based upon my design and advertising background, communicating a message in its most simplistic form,” said Morris.  “I try to create an instant happening for the viewer with each composition I create.”
The art seen in the exhibit is not only contemporary and bold; it is easily recognizable in television and advertising around the country.  His piece entitled Coffee Break became a part of the television show Friends, after David Schwimmer wore one of Morris’s t-shirts in an episode.  The piece was most notably seen hanging in Central Perk, the show’s fictional coffee shop.  Morris was also commissioned by Absolut Vodka to represent Pennsylvania in the Absolut Statehood campaign, where he was asked to create an original painting of an Absolut bottle as well as images of his home state for their new advertisements.
Paintings by Morris have also been featured at The Jimmy Carter Center, Sotheby’s of Amsterdam and the Hickory Museum of Art in North Carolina.
Although Morris isn’t able to spend every day at the Lowe Gallery to meet people as they come in and enjoy is work, he was at the reception for the opening of the exhibit in July.  “He loved the exhibit,” said Albert.  “He couldn’t say enough good things about it.”
Burton Morris: Pop! will be featured in the Emily Lowe Art Gallery until September 27, 2009.