James Cowan had always been appreciative of the works of Bosch, Brueghel, and Dali. It was upon seeing an early cover of Robert Guccione's Omni magazine while in the Masters Program in Cinema at USC, that his life would eventually take a turn. The cover featured H.R. Giger's amazing Li I painting. Cowan was transfixed by the wonder of this work of art, and went on to study as much of Giger's works as he could. This led to his realization that there were a number of other remarkably talented contemporary painters of the surreal, fantastic, and visionary. Later, Omni would do a feature on Morpheus and its artists.
James Cowan began Morpheus Fine Art in 1989, with the publication of a series of art posters by H.R. Giger. At this time, very little work by the Swiss master was available in the United States. Cowan went on to publish most of Giger's major art books for the US, working in conjunction with Peter Baumann of Edition C Verlag in Zug, Switzerland. With limited resources, and no knowledge of the book industry, he charged the first title on a dozen credit cards. The gamble paid off, and Morpheus has gone on to work with many of the finest artists in the realm of fantastic and surreal art.
Luminaries such as Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro, Terry Gilliam, Ray Bradbury, Ridley Scott and Harlan Ellison have all contributed introductions or key commentaries on Morpheus artists. The firm is proud to also have published the massive retrospective The Essential Ellison, the most thorough collection of award-winning fantasist Harlan Ellison's highly regarded writing. Morpheus' titles include: Giger's Alien (introduction by Ridley Scott), H.R. Giger's Biomechanics (introduction by Harlan Ellison), H.R. Giger's Necronomicon I and II (introduction by Clive Barker), H.R. Giger's Retrospective, H.R. Giger's Film Design (introduction by Ridley Scott), Species Design, The H.R. Giger Calendar, The Essential Ellison, Stars by Sebastian Kruger, Stones by Kruger, The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe, Barlowe's Inferno, Brushfire, The Fantastic Art of Jacek Yerka, Mind Fields: The Art of Jacek Yerka and the Fiction of Harlan Ellison, River of Mirrors: The Art of Judson Huss, Heavy Light: The Art of De Es, and The Fantastic Art of Beksinski.
Morpheus also published The H.R. Giger Calendar and The Morpheus Calendar of Fantastic Art for several years. The later calendar included works by Antoni Kowalski, Ernst Fuchs, Artik Brauer, Robert Venosa, Brom, Gerard Di Maccio, Clive Barker, Christophe Vacher, Mati Klarwein, Marc Fishman, Wolfgang Grasse, Olga Spiegel, Wolfgang Maria Ohlhauser, as well as works by masters of the fantastic from years and centuries past, such as Hieronymus Bosch, Rene Magritte, and Salvador Dali.
Galerie Morpheus was opened in Beverly Hills in the 1990s. The gallery was the first to exhibit works by Sebastian Kruger, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Judson Huss, and Jacek Yerka in the United States. In addition to the gallery program, Morpheus began publishing books and prints for Beksinski, Yerka, De Es Schwertberger, Wayne Barlowe, and Judson Huss, in addition to Giger. Exhibitions would typically garner hundreds of attendees. The physical gallery was closed when the firm moved to Las Vegas, where it currently functions as a publisher and manager of artists. Morpheus maintains its online gallery, and supplies art to physical galleries throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
A seminal experience for Cowan was his involvement in the exhibition of The Fantastique and Visionary. This expansive show and gathering of master artists too place in Venice, Italy in 1994. Participants included Schwertberger, H.R. Giger, Bruno Weber, Ernst Fuchs, Mati Klarwein, Laurie Lipton, and Claude Verlinde. Works by Michel Henricot, Sergio Zanni, Alex Grey, Jose' Hernandez, and Wolfgang Hutter were exhibited.
Symposiums were chaired by the charsmatic Professor Fuchs, of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, and one of the great living masters.
It was Mati Klarwein who introduced Cowan to the works of Judson Huss, and a book deal was struck with Judson Huss within an hour of their meeting.
The fantastic environment of Venice, mixed with the company of fantastic artists, made for the experience of a lifetime. Subsequent trips abroad enabled Cowan to develop relationships with Ernst Fuchs, Bruno Weber, De Es Schwertberger, Arik Brauer, Jacek Yerka, Zdzislaw Beksinski, and others.
Morpheus has recently added the talents of artists Dariusz Zawadzki, Jota Leal and Geoffrey Gersten to the mix. Their paintings and giclee's are sold in galleries nationwide, in addition to their availability directly through Morpheus.
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