James Austin Murray

Working within self imposed rules, painter James Austin Murray creates engaging pieces made using basic means: ivory black oil paint, a canvas with wood-panel support and wallpaper brushes-up to nine affixed to a long handle. Evoking Zen sand gardens in the quiet raking of the paint, Murray's unadulterated pigment allows for the texture and movement of the paint to come through, offering an almost otherworldly experience as the architecture of the brushstrokes take the eye on a roller-coaster journey into the pleats and folds. His work is meditative and gestural, yet precise in his technique- the flat surface expands and contracts, ripples and pulses leaving the viewer with a clear sense of movement. 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.