By Elin Spring
Abelardo Morell is renowned for his camera obscura and tent photographs that gyrate landscapes into topsy-turvy still-lifes. From his pinhole camera obscura cityscapes projected upside down across entire hotel walls to novel studio rearrangements of familiar objects – featuring no smoke, but definitely mirrors – he continually delights viewers with his inventive viewpoints. Through decades of his illustrious career, Morell’s unstoppable curiosity has featured a remarkable range of subjects but each project shares a captivating banter between perspective, scale, angle, light and shadow. And they all embody his playful, inquisitive temperament. This is highlighted in “Ideas of Order,” a tight survey of Morell’s most recent work, on view at Krakow Witkin Gallery in Boston through May 9th, 2026. NOTE: The gallery is hosting talks by Mr. Morell on Saturday, April 25th at 10:30 am and 2:30 pm, RSVP required.
“Tent Camera Image: View of 1221 Avenue of the Americas Building Looking West from 1 Rockefeller Plaza, 33rd Floor Terrace, New York City, 2024” by Abelardo Morell, courtesy of the artist and Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston.
Morell harbors a fascination with the perception of reality versus contrivance. In “Tent Camera Image (2024),” the skyscrapers of New York City are cast by a prism onto natural wood planks on the ground. The contrast in scale between the city’s super structures and the substrate of raw wooden planks underscore the differences between steely facades and the warmth of wood’s natural grain and color. Morell’s juxtaposition extends beyond optical comparisons to a deeper pondering of societal and cultural choices.
“Through the Looking Glass: Humpty Dumpty #3, 2020” by Abelardo Morell, courtesy of the artist and Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston.
Morell embraces the natural features of wood grain in his staged studio images, as well. The translucent shadows of geometric objects onto a wood panel in “Through the Looking Glass (2020)” traces a mellifluous flow of lines while contrasting its curvilinear and rectilinear forms and skewing the original shapes of the objects. This deceivingly simple image is at once clear and abstract, known and unknown, immediate and removed. While never tricking the eye, Morell jousts with it in “Flower Painting Reproduction Under a Large Glass Dome (2019),” an oversized still-life that colorfully questions artifice versus reality and the qualities that define photography versus painting. As a bit of icing layered on this cake, the prominent reflections on the glass dome reveal the artist and his studio.
“Flower Painting Reproduction Under a Large Glass Dome (2019)” by Abelardo Morell, courtesy of the artist and Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston.
Feature Image: “Glassware Still Life #1, 2019” by Abelardo Morell, courtesy of the artist and Krakow Witlim Gallery, Boston.
Morell capitalizes more purely on reflections created by light on glass surfaces in “Glassware Still Life #1 (2019).” The placement of objects and their echoing iterations is an alluring cacophony that recalls funhouse mirrors. They also reveal and mirror the photographer’s studio in a multitude of distortions. Delving deeper into the essences of painting and photography, Morell again utilizes the tools of scale, shadow and light. The delicious tactility of “Dictionary Thumb Indices (2025)” and the splendid rainbow of hues in “Color Paper Abstraction #1 (2025)” share the commonality of everyday objects with an engrossing immediacy and spirit. In each, Morell questions the borders of photography and painting. “Ideas of Order” is an absorbing selection of Abelardo Morell’s most recent imagery, demonstrating that while his subject matter continually changes, to our great fortune, the quest remains the same.
“Dictionary Thumb Indices (2025)” by Abelardo Morell, courtesy of the artist and Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston.
For more information about this exhibit and to register for one of Mr. Morell’s artist talks on April 25th, 2026, go to: https://www.krakowwitkingallery.com/exhibition/abelardo-morell/
“Colored Paper Abstraction #1 (2025)” by Abelardo Morell, courtesy of the artist and Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston.
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