Morales-Lee was taught by the painter John Virtue and graduated alongside friend and peer Antony Micallef. During the last few years, he has exhibited in a number of shows, selling work to a handful of well know collectors and exhibited alongside artists such as Antony Gormley, Jeremy Deller, Gavin Turk, Sarah Maple, Anthony Lister, Shepard Fairey, Vhils, FAILE and many more. He also recently won the Galerie Heimat & NG Art Creative Residency Art Prize 2021 and also appeared on Sky Arts, Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020.
The work deals with the idea of identity and belonging. From being fostered at the age of three, Patrick was constantly aware of his surroundings and the need to fit in growing up. Looking back, he recognises those feelings as universal and the work looks to explore the ‘human condition’, specifically what makes people do what they do to have a sense of belonging – from the everyday to the extreme.
From the schoolyard to being an adult, we constantly look to define ourselves by trying to fit into a group. Aspiring to be one of the ‘cool kids’, aligning yourself with a religious faith or football team, fashion, music, brands and celebrities: the sense of being in a tribe is all around us.
The work looks to showcase snapshot scenarios – a soft narrative to a given situation, process or ceremony. These scenarios could be, on one hand, unsettling or odd, but to others comforting and familiar.
Often the figure is depicted within a ceremony; much of my inspiration for this work is taken from the Christian ceremony of Communion and the idea of transformation, the idea of taking on something new. There is belief in an ‘action’ – the action of taking bread and wine representing the body and blood of Christ. I call this ‘active belonging’, the idea that people will participate physically and mentally in an action, a ceremony, to show to themselves and to others that they believe, that there is meaning in the process, that they aren’t alone, they belong to something – and ultimately giving tangible meaning to their own lives.
