In 2007, Multistory and Sandwell Partnership, through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF), commissioned artist Shaun Morris to complete 25 portrait paintings of people who live and work in West Bromwich. Shaun was one of the artists who took part in the Longhouse’s 2006 / 2007 Action Research programme.  The Action Research commission provided Shaun with the freedom and space to develop his practice in a much wider public context and allowed him to develop his ideas and receive further funding for an exhibition. The exhibition, titled Seek My Face, opened to the public from Monday 18 February to Friday 22 February at West Bromwich Town Hall.

The selection of portraits on show provides a sense of the ‘local community’ in West Bromwich. Multistory and Shaun Morris hope that the residents of the town, and Sandwell as a whole, will come to view the portraits and will recognise their friends, neighbours, or even a part of themselves, in the people that have been painted.

Talking about the project and his work, Shaun Morris said: “I first painted about West Bromwich, my hometown, its people and places, as a student in 1988 and, in one way or another, I continued to paint about it for the next 10 years. This unique project has allowed me to find the ‘long way home’ that I have been seeking. Meeting the huge variety of people I have met over the last year has been an enormous privilege. As well as all of the ‘identities’ I have been given the opportunity to present, the project has allowed me to find anew my own identity and relationship to West Bromwich, both artistically and personally”.

Garry Morris, Arts Manager at Sandwell MBC said: “Shaun Morris’s ‘Seek my Face’ is a life time work. It is a series of honest portraits by the West Brom lad about his West Brom people. We see people both as individuals and members of communities. We can all see ourselves in it. It should be contemplated, celebrated and enjoyed for its diversity and vitality. It is good and fitting that West Bromwich Town Hall exhibits its own to its own. Shaun has done good!”

Shaun Morris about the exhibition: “I first painted about West Bromwich, my hometown, it’s people and places, as a student in 1988, and in one way or another I continued to paint about it for the next 10 years.
This unique project has allowed me to find the ‘long way home’ that I have been seeking, and I am very grateful to Multistory and Sandwell Council’s faith in my abilities. Meeting the huge variety of people I have met over the last 18 months has been an enormous privilege, and there have been many occasions when I have been sat drawing someone in some temple, office, kitchen, when I’ve felt as an artist ‘it doesn’t get much better than this’. As well as all the ‘identities’ I have been given the opportunity to present, the project has allowed me to find anew my own identity and relationship to West Bromwich, both artistically and personally.”