James Austin Murray

James Austin Murray’s paintings are made using the most basic of means: ivory black oil paint, a canvas with wood-panel support and wallpaper brushes—up to nine affixed to a long handle. But the paintings surface effects are far from simple, and indeed offer an almost otherworldly experience, as the architecture of the brushstrokes take the eye on a roller-coaster journey into pleats and folds, over light-struck hillocks and into shadowy crooks and bends. Depending on where you stand, the paintings appear like a landscape one could walk right into. It is a visual encounter that is both inviting and profoundly seductive. James Austin Murray is a graduate of Parsons School of Design, New York, NY (1992). Murray opened and managed the Hartnett-Murray Gallery and The Markham-Murray Gallery in Tribeca, New York in the early eighties. His works has been exhibited throughout the US and abroad. He is a recipient of the Dedalus Foundation Fellowship Award for residency at The Vermont Studio Center, VT and has completed residencies at The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock, NY and Bermis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. Murray’s work is found in numerous private and public collections such Weisman Collection (Los Angeles, CA), Sofitel (Philadelphia, PA), Hotel Palomar (Philadelphia, PA), Four Seasons Hotel (Washington, D.C.), Omni Hotel (Nashville, TN) and Tom Ford (Designer). Murray’s studio is located in Piermont, NY outside of New York City.

 
1000x1000 murray

 

AVAILABLE WORKS

Our inventory changes frequently. Please view available works below or click FOLLOW to be notified of new arrivals.

Coming Soon

 

FOLLOW THIS ARTIST

Interested, but not ready to move forward yet? Want to be the first to know about new arrivals? Follow this artist to be notified.

FOLLOW

ARTWORK

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

"My paintings are a product of working with the light from above and the earth that grounds us. As the angle of light changes in relation to the viewer, so too does the art. The work started as a multitude of studies on small panels and canvases. Using only Ivory Black oil paint, I became enamored with the amount of definition and imagery that I could pull out with simple brush strokes. Larger works required larger brushes that were not available, so I made my own. This process changed the work dramatically and opened up a new world into the work for me to explore.

Ivory Black is one of the oldest pigments, one that appears in some of humanity's earliest mark-making. This pigment, still used today, has a lineage going back into our pre-history and our relationship with the earth itself.

Ruminating on this connection to the earth, I have started making my own paint using raw earth as a pigment. Made using an acrylic binder, I source the earth from locations with a significant history for myself and our culture. To date, I have sourced pigment from India, Brazil, and locations in the United States, to name just a few.

My black paintings are about light and its relationship to the viewer. My earth paintings directly connect our history with the earth and are about form, shadow, and the presence of the material."

- James Austin Murray

 

 
take a look

Video

Video of  "Heavy Water" in our Village Court Gallery.

Biography

James Austin Murray is a graduate of Parsons School of Design, New York, NY (1992). Murray opened and managed the Hartnett-Murray Gallery and The Markham-Murray Gallery in Tribeca, New York in the early eighties. His works has been exhibited throughout the US and abroad. He is a recipient of the Dedalus Foundation Fellowship Award for residency at The Vermont Studio Center, VT and has completed residencies at The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock, NY and Bermis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. Murray’s work is found in numerous private and public collections such Weisman Collection (Los Angeles, CA), Sofitel (Philadelphia, PA), Hotel Palomar (Philadelphia, PA), Four Seasons Hotel (Washington, D.C.), Omni Hotel (Nashville, TN) and Tom Ford (Designer). Murray’s studio is located in Piermont, NY outside of New York City.