
The Reagonomic Youth (version 2)
2012
Burnished to a mirror finish, this stainless steel sculpture by Joel Morrison condenses the visual excess of 1980s American consumer culture into a compact, totemic object standing just over seventy centimeters tall. The title references the Reagan era not as political polemic but as a cultural shorthand, evoking a decade defined by surface, spectacle, and the gleaming seduction of commodity. Morrison assembles his signature vocabulary of found and fabricated forms, compressing logos, packaging fragments, and vernacular industrial shapes into dense, fused masses that read simultaneously as archaeological specimens and futuristic relics. The reflective steel surface amplifies this tension, dissolving the boundary between the object and its environment while implicating the viewer in its shiny, self-referential world. Morrison occupies a distinctive position in contemporary sculpture, drawing equally from the traditions of late Pop, the formal concerns of Minimalism, and the irreverence of underground and skate culture. The Reaganomic Youth (version 2) rewards close looking, as the compressed composite forms reveal unexpected details, familiar contours from commercial life rendered strange through their recombination and the cold authority of polished steel. The designation "version 2" suggests an iterative practice that treats individual works as entries in an ongoing investigation rather than isolated objects, lending this piece a conceptual weight that extends beyond its physical presence. For collectors, this signed work presents a refined example of Morrison at a mature and focused moment in his practice, physically modest in scale yet dense with cultural and material meaning. Offered through Alex Daniels, Reflex Amsterdam, the piece carries strong provenance and represents a compelling opportunity to acquire a work that speaks fluently to enduring conversations about American identity, consumerism, and the sculptural possibilities of industrial fabrication.
- Medium
- Stainless steel
- Overall
- Signed
- Yes
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