DEIRDRE MURPHY W I NDS OF CHANGE
This catalog was published to accompany the exhibition Winds of Change, a solo show at Gross McCleaf Gallery, November 2015. Catalog essay: Margaret Winslow Special thanks to the Department of Fine Arts in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania for funding and the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary for artist in residence program. Cover Image Deirdre Murphy / Dawn, detail. www.deirdremurphyart.com
2
Gross McCleaf Gallery 127 S. 16th Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 www.grossmccleaf.com Designed by Emily Belshaw www.ebelshaw.com Photos by Karen Mauch and Rebecca McAlpin
DEIRDRE MURPHY W I NDS OF CHANGE
November 4th–28th GROSS McCLEAF GALLERY 127 S. 16th Street | Philadelphia PA 19102
4
Spontaneous Order / Oil on canvas / 60 Ă— 40 in. / 2015
DEIRDRE MURPHY: WINDS OF CHANGE
Not less important are the observers of the birds than the birds themselves. — Henry David Thoreau from Journal X, March 20, 1858
By Margaret Winslow
In her most recent body of work, on view in Winds
Associate Curator for Contemporary Art Delaware Art Museum
scientific exploration of the flora and fauna that have
of Change, Deirdre Murphy has embarked on a fresh inhabited her canvases for years. In August 2015, Murphy spent the first week of a year-long artist residency at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Pennsylvania. The Sanctuary was incorporated in 1938 as the world’s first refuge for birds of prey and as such is an important preserve for the research and conservation of falcons, ospreys, hawks, eagles, vultures, and owls. While there, Murphy fueled her interest in these creatures—obtaining data on migratory routes—and observed the quiet passage of time. Murphy’s fascination with spontaneous and deliberate movements— murmuration and migration—of birds, the relationships between stars in the sky, the construction of a flower, and the structural engineering of power lines inspire her investigations of the natural and constructed world around her. Murphy is a keen observer of the relationships between the micro and the macro, those points in space that align travel routes to constellations and flight trajectories to wind currents. She approaches
5
6
this interest with the attentiveness of a scientist,
painting, the artist constructs multiple vantage points
observing, researching, and tracking changes. The shifts
throughout her compositions. The formal elements—
that occur—the effects of global warming on raptor
the horizon line, migratory routes, perched birds, and
migration—are noted but not critiqued, and similarly
swarming shapes—guide the viewer through the painting
the industrial patterning created across a morning sky
from shallow depths in the foreground to infinite spaces
is handled with care and precision devoid of appraisal.
beyond. Murphy’s formal means are accentuated by
Murphy’s paintings link nature’s aesthetics in a manner
her interest in color theory, and use of complementary
similar to how a social graph makes users aware of
hues, as well as variation in mark making between
their interconnectedness; the formal similarities are
hard-edge shapes and hand-drawn, circuitous lines.
emphasized for the viewer’s contemplation.
Through observing such differences, one is able to take
Beginning in 2014 with her painting, Seasonal Passage,
flight through the canvas. Ultimately Murphy’s paintings
Murphy incorporated a new formal device to highlight
make visible the wonder of time. Her Fall Migration and
the voids—the interstellar medium—she observes. In
Spring Migration mark the passage of hours through
this canvas, the artist connects the points between
the slow advance of pokeweed shadows across the
flocking birds, creating polygons that accentuate the
panel’s surface—the shifts in daylight and continuity of
mass of clusters moving through the sky. The resulting
perpetual routines. In the exhibition’s title work, Winds
shape—informed in part by an encounter with Robert
of Change, time is suspended among swirling leaves or
Goodnough’s Dark Blue Cluster (1979, Delaware Art
a gust of wind, held in a moment between action and
Museum)—is further developed in Murphy’s current
stasis. Murphy’s canvases capture that tenuous point
body of work. The triangles populating Chatter double
where journeys past shift to trajectories forward.
as both a flock of birds noisily gathered in the trees and the foliage itself in which the birds are nestled. Dawn finds the flock waiting to alight on a telephone wire. In Dreaming of Achill, the floating forms no longer retain a strict correlation to birds and instead can be read as the depiction of wind sweeping over the Irish island. Murphy also utilizes the bird as a means through which to enter the canvas. Fascinated by Japanese scroll
7
Spring Jewel / Oil on canvas / 48 Ă— 36 in. / 2015
8
Dawn / Oil on canvas / 36 Ă— 48 in. / 2015
9
Winds of Change / Oil on canvas / 36 Ă— 48 in. / 2015
10
Red Bud / Oil on canvas / 30 Ă— 30 in. / 2015
11
Ricochet / Oil on canvas / 30 Ă— 30 in. / 2015
12
Spring Migration / Acrylic on panel / 16 Ă— 48 in. / Triptych / 2015
13
14
Chatter / Oil on canvas / 20 Ă— 20 in. / 2015
15
Night Flight / Oil on canvas / 30 Ă— 30 in. / 2015
16
Summer / Acrylic on panel / 16 Ă— 16 in. / 2015
17
Morning Glories / Oil on canvas / 20 Ă— 20 in. / 2015
18
Dreaming of Achill / Oil on canvas / 36 Ă— 96 in. / Diptych / 2015
19
20
Sky Fall / Oil on canvas / 40 Ă— 30 in. / 2015
21
Commute (Alone We Journey Together) / Oil on canvas / 40 Ă— 60 in. / 2015
Philadelphia and numerous select group exhibitions in New York, Delaware, California, and Oregon. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Philadelphia International Airport, Palm Springs Museum of Art, Biggs Museum, New Bedford Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and been
22
a visiting artist at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania College of Design and University of Texas. Her work has been published in Fresh Paint Magazine, New American Paintings and can be found in many public and private collections including Colorado Springs Fine Art Center Museum, Temple University, AlphaMed Press and Gamblin Artists Colors. She is represented by the Deirdre Murphy lives and paints in Philadelphia. The
Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia and Zinc Art +
recipient of numerous awards and grants, most notably
Interiors in Edmonds, WA. Her work can be viewed at
the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship and a
www.deirdremurphyart.com.
Leeway Foundation award, she has been an artist-inresidence at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (Kempton, PA), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT) and Pouch Cove Artist Residency (St. Johns, Newfoundland). She earned her MFA degree from the University of Pennsylvania (2000) and her BFA degree from the Kansas City Art Institute (1991). Deirdre’s work has been shown internationally in South Korea and Italy with solo exhibitions in
Š Deirdre Murphy 2015 All Rights Reserved