Deirdre Murphy, Winds of Change, 36″ x 48”, oil on canvas, 2015
Deirdre Murphy
Dual Solo Shows in November in Philadelphia
Winds of Change
November 4 – 28th, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, November 6, 5-7pm.Gross McCleaf Gallery, 127 South 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Migratory Paths
November 3 – December 5, 2015, URBN Gallery 534 @ the Naval Yard
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present Winds of Change, an exhibition of new work by Deirdre Murphy. This is Murphy’s first solo show with Gross McCleaf. Concurrently, Migratory Paths is on view at URBN Gallery 534 with works on paper that span from 2010-2015 that detail the research and growth of her pursuit in the intersection of art and science. Murphy brings the concept of nature paintings into the 21st century transforming ostensibly traditional subject matter into an exploration of time and space. In the exhibition catalog, Margaret Winslow, Associate Curator for Contemporary Art, Delaware Art Museum shares her thoughts on Murphy’s recent paintings:
“Deirdre 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 this interest with the attentiveness of a scientist, observing, researching, and tracking changes. The shifts that occur—the effects of global warming on raptor migration—are noted but not critiqued, and similarly the industrial patterning created across a morning sky is handled with care and precision devoid of appraisal. Murphy’s paintings link nature’s aesthetics in a manner similar to how a social graph makes users aware of their interconnectedness; the formal similarities are emphasized for the viewer’s contemplation.
The artist informs and relocates our appreciation of natural phenomenon through geometric interventions and creates structure from the seeming randomness of nature. Lifelike renderings of birds contrast starkly with the synthetic palette Murphy uses for the ground and the abstract lines and forms that radiate throughout the compositions. She implores the viewer to stop and pay close attention to “a moment between action and stasis….that tenuous point where journeys past shift to trajectories forward.” – Margaret Winslow
Deirdre Murphy, Spring Jewel, 48″ x 36”, oil on canvas, 2015
Deirdre Murphy has received numerous awards and grants, most notably the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship and a Leeway Foundation Award. She was recently an artist-in-residence at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (Kempton, PA), Vermont Studio Center (Jackson, VT), and Pouch Cove Artist Residency (St. Johns, Newfoundland). The artist earned her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 where she is currently on faculty, and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute (1991). Murphy has shown internationally in South Korea and Italy; has had six solo exhibitions in Philadelphia; and participated in numerous group exhibitions in New York, Delaware, Minnesota and Oregon. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Philadelphia International Airport, the Palm Springs Museum of Art, the Biggs Museum in Delaware, the New Bedford Museum in MA, and the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington. She currently has a long-term installation at the Philadelphia International Airport, titled Sky Paintings, which is on view through 2016 in the hallway that connects terminal C & D.
For more information and images on Murphy’s work go to: www.deirdremurphyart.com.
For further information, please contact Sharon Ewing or Evan Fugazzi at Gross McCleaf Gallery. 127 South 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-665-8138
email.grossmccleaf@gmail.com
For further information on URBN contact: Lauren Addis or Maddie Flanigan at URBN Gallery 534, 5000 Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19112 LAddis@urbn.com MFlanigan@urbn.com
Thank you to Deirdre Murphy for the content of this post.
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