Mali Morris was born in North Wales and studied Fine Art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, BA (1963-68) and the University of Reading, MFA (1968–1970).
Her compositions engage the viewer in a world of pure abstraction, in which colour relationships create complex layers of space. Five (Red) is a typical construct of this vision.
Her first major exhibitions were at the Serpentine Summer Show 3, London, 1977 and the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1979. Since then she has held over 35 solo shows worldwide, and has been included in numerous group shows, at the Barbican, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Whitworth Gallery Manchester, Museum of Wales Cardiff, as well as a number overseas.
She has received awards from the Arts Council, British Council, DAIWA Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Elephant Trust, GLAA, The Lorne Award and the Sunny Dupree Family Award, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009.
She has been a lecturer and examiner at many departments of Fine Art, and from 1991-2005 was Senior Lecturer in Painting at Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts, London. She is a Founder-member of the charity A.P.T, Creekside, South London, where she has her studio and from 2019 - 2020 was Professor of Painting at the RA Schools. A monograph, Mali Morris: Painting was published by RA in 2019.