Morgan Hill is a sculptor and jewelry designer. Her work draws on a wide range of conceptual and aesthetic influences, from the lived complexities of womanhood and her Southern, Christian upbringing as the only female child in an extended family of Arkansas farmers, to the nostalgic pop culture and costume design. Her work exists in two equal and interconnected practices. Her sculpture work is rooted in a deeper, more introspective place that requires excavation and confrontation, exploring identity, trauma, healing, and renewal through acts of making and unmaking. Her jewelry line, Bad Habits by Morgan Hill, complements this work by celebrating excess and indulgence through humor, pleasure, and desire.
Morgan’s formal art education began at the Memphis College of Art where she focused on drawing. She also studied interior design and ultimately earned a BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design from the University of Arkansas Little Rock. She was a Core Fellow at the Penland School of Craft from 2015-2017 where she worked with renowned artists and designers and studied techniques ranging from chainsaw carving to metalwork to neon tube bending. In 2018, she was an ITE Windgate Fellow at the Center for Art in Wood, and in 2022, she was awarded the Chrysalis Award by the James Renwick Alliance. Her work was recently acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is also represented by galleries internationally. She lives and works in Penland, NC, where she continues to develop her studio practice.