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The Arts Intel Report

Maurice Harris

Sept 7 – Nov 20, 2021
Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111, United States

Speaking of his portrait photography, the floral designer Maurice Harris says that this new practice was “born from my deep desire to learn to love myself for who I am (which is not easy when you are a big black gay man that doesn’t fit into society in any conventional way).” He went, he says, “on a journey to find myself in other people.” The founder of Bloom & Plum, Harris usually creates floral installations for a high-profile clientele. He calls his aesthetic “natural opulence.” But in recent years, the lack of positive imagery associated with Black people has bothered him. He began looking for natural beauty among people of color—men, women, and families alike—and in his photographs created vignettes and filled the frames with flowers. In the latest installment of the Rockefeller Center’s “Art in Focus” series, Harris’s images are presented as vinyl murals around the Rockefeller campus. The shots include family members and community members, and swell with elegance. —E.C.

Maurice Harris, “My Brother Moses, In Blooms,” 2021. Courtesy of Art in Focus.