THRESHOLD DEIRDRE MURPHY
THRESHOLD OCTOBER 7 - NOVEMBER 6, 2020
DEIRDRE MURPHY BOXHEART GALLERY 4523 LIBERTY AVENUE PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
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Love is Love / 36 x 36 in. / Oil on canvas / 2020
DEIRDRE MURPHY THRESHOLD
By Elizabeth Lee Associate Professor of Art History Dickinson College
Deirdre Murphy’s latest body of work is knit together by the concept of a threshold, which can be defined as the start of something new or can signal the point at which a certain effect is produced. These paintings do both. In the Oculus series, we are transported into galaxies dusted with constellations of stars and inhabited by suspended planetary orbs. Deep space is interrupted by horizontal strips of marbleized gray patterns, suggesting aerial maps of painterly landscapes witnessed from above. At times, as in Blue Oculus, Chinese Landscape, these bands not only intersect but merge with their adjacent planets whose edges fade and dissolve. A closer look reveals this planetary surface is not covered by the earth’s familiar continental contours, but by an ancient Chinese landscape. A giant green Luna moth hovers along the planetary rim, distorting the viewer’s sense of scale and reminding us this is not the world we thought we knew. Murphy’s layering of familiar forms made strange resonates with John Yau’s provocation of “the radical possibility of seeing what is in front of you.” Sometimes seeing is easiest when reality shifts just enough to invite the viewer in for a closer look as these Oculus paintings do, inviting us in to observe our surroundings. They serve as thresholds insofar as they take us somewhere new, while also challenging us to heighten our perception, to really notice and pay attention to what we see.
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While roughly half the works in the show bear witness to this macroscopic universe, the rest are firmly rooted in the earth and Murphy’s longstanding commitment to plein-air painting. This is plein-air painting with a difference, though: rather than reflecting the artist’s immersion in an open-air environment, they picture nature through a portal, either in the format of a lens or storm culvert. By inserting an artificial structure between the viewer and nature, they challenge a metaphor in place since the Renaissance in which painting is conceived as an unmediated window onto the world. Murphy instead frames nature, making us aware of the act of looking and the devices through which we see. This is entirely appropriate for paintings created during a pandemic in which even access to nature is conditioned by socially-distanced protocols. They speak to a reality in which movement across a seemingly simple threshold can feel perpetually beyond reach. Despite these limitations, the pandemic has allowed for certain insights. The Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy notes that historically pandemics have forced a break with the past to reimagine how we live. They usher us into another world, inviting us to look with fresh eyes at what is before us and to reconsider our place within the larger universe.1 This is also what Murphy does: using terrestrial and planetary portals, she opens up rich and vibrant worlds. Despite differences in appearance, these works are linked through the repeated motif of the circle, which suggests the cyclical nature of life with its ceaseless change and unending process of growth.
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Exit / 36 x 36 in. / Oil on canvas / 2020
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Cabin in the Woods / 30 x 30 in. / Oil on canvas / 2019
Cabin by the Lake / 30 x 30 in. / Oil on canvas / 2019
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Small Cabin / 20 x 20 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2020
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Oculus Major / 3 x 26 ft. / Oil on Canvas / 2019 / 6 canvases
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Oculus Major (detail) Full Moon with Luna Moth / 36 x 48 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2019
Oculus Major (detail) The Americas Light Pollution Map / 36 x 48 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2019
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Oculus Major (detail) Blood Moon & Song Bird Migration / 36 x 48 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2019
Oculus Major (detail) Italy Light Pollution Map / 36 x 48 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2019
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Oculus Major (detail) Luna Moth & Phosphorescent Fireflies / 36 x 48 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2019
Oculus Major (detail) Celtic Light Pollution Map / 36 x 48 in. / Oil on Canvas / 2019
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BIOGRAPHY
CONTEMPORARY ARTIST, DEIRDRE MURPHY A Philadelphia based artist whose art encompasses painting, printmaking, collaborative sculpture and public art, Deirdre Murphy’s artwork is informed by biological patterns in nature and scientific data visualization. Thresholds take you from one place to another, the thematic thread of the portal or circular vantage point can be imagined as a telescope, microscope, periscope or binoculars and all are framing devices that act as a threshold from one realm to another. This exhibition, which was partially made during the pandemic quarantine, is a departure from Murphy’s BioArt and a return to her seminal interest in plein air painting.
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A decade of interest in avian migratory patterns, climate change and molecular biology led to residencies at Winterthur Museum (2018), Integral Molecular (2018), Lacawac Field Lab / Drexel University (2018), Powdermill Nature Reserve/ Carnegie Museum of Natural History (2016) and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (2015), Vermont Studio Center (1998). This deep creative inquiry and curiosity have led to successful grants from the University of Pennsylvania Environmental Humanities, Lehigh University’s Humanities Lab, Leeway Foundation, Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and Percent for the Arts (California). Murphy has exhibited extensively in the United States in museums, galleries and institutions in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington, Oregon and Vermont. Solo and selected museum venues include Zillman Art Museum (Maine), Biggs Museum of American Art (Delaware), Palm Springs Museum of Art (California), New Bedford Art Museum (Maine) and Tacoma Art Museum. Her work has been published in numerous publications: Symbiosis Journal, New American Paintings, Fresh Paint Magazine, Antique and Fine Arts Magazine, and Broad Street Review. Murphy received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Lehigh University and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Visiting artist positions include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kent State, University of Texas (Tyler), University of Maine, and Dickinson College. Her work can be found in public collections at Temple University, Zillman Art Museum, Bank of WIlmington, AlphaMed Press, Independence Seaport Museum, Glenmede Trust, University of Pennsylvania and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Museum among others. Murphy is represented by Boxheart Gallery (Pittsburgh), Gross McCleaf Gallery (Philadelphia) and Zinc Contemporary (Seattle).
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Shooting Star The World is Always More than I Can See 48 x 36 in. Oil on Canvas 2019
This catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition, THRESHOLD, a solo show by Deirdre Murphy at Boxheart Gallery and presented from October 7 - November 6, 2020. Boxheart Gallery 4523 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224 www.boxheartgallery.com Curated by Nicole Capozzi Photography by Karen Mauch and Victoria Bastian Essay by Elizabeth Lee PhD Associate Professor of Art History Dickinson College Footnotes 1 https://www.yesmagazine.org/video/coronavirus-pandemic-arundhati-roy/ Design by Tori Hemsath www.torihemsath.com Cover Images by Deirdre Murphy Front: Oculus Major: Luna Moth & Phosphorescent Skies Back: Oculus Major: Italy Light Pollution Maps www.deirdremurphyart #deirdremurphyart Catalogue was generously funded by Lehigh University, Art Architecture & Design Š Deirdre Murphy Studio 2020 All Rights Reserved
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BOXHEART GALLERY