Morpeth Contemporary presents Rye Tippett “Whistling in the Moonlight,” his third solo show at the gallery runs the month of May, with a reception on Saturday, May 7, from 5 to 8 pm.
Be it over land or water, Tippett’s vast skies stir the imagination. Drawing on his own experience walking in the fields late at night, he asks: “That’s the moon behind the trees, or is it?” Hovering in his paintings’ skies are adventure-seeking dogs, ghost-like sperm whales, along with relics of the past – from historical warships to vintage cars. Tippett nestles into his horizon lines elements from literature and history, pairing the wonder of the natural world with his favorite human creations.
Ultimately, Tippett’s works ask about the passing of time, and the myriad elements that hover between heaven and earth. Is it a ghost? A glorious machine now retired? A dream or memory that lives on? And how is it that when we look up at the night sky they sometimes replace the moon?
Tippett, a Bucks County native, is represented in numerous private collections and has exhibited widely. “Bluebird” from a previous show at Morpeth was accepted in the National American Artists League 88th Grand National Exhibition (2016) and “Hung out to Dry” won the Phillips Mill Community Association Award at the 2017 Philips Mill art exhibition.
