“The four works presented as part of Phenomenal present geometric forms – circles, straight lines, arcs and rectangles – all symmetrically presented beneath frosted acrylic surfaces. These simple abstract configurations suggest intensely coloured forms receding into bright fog and ambiguous depth. To my mind, they have figurative antecedents in the work of Caspar David Friedrich – not only in the simple symmetrical forms and sense of space that Morgenstern’s and Friedrich’s works share, but also in the solemn stillness that both artists’ works call forth in the viewer. Friedrich would have called this feeling piety. For Morgenstern it is a sense of “the numinous”. (Excerpt of exhibtion catalogue | Text by Michael Newall, October 2023 | Images by Sam Roberts)