Work

In, behind the bush

2019

Gouache, watercolor on paper

33 x 35.5 cm | 13 x 14 in (unframed) 38.1 x 40.6 cm | 15 x 16 in (framed)

Intermission

2018

Watercolour, gouache, oil on paper

23.5 x 32.5 cm | 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 in

The kind that floated

2019

Gouache and watercolor on paper

45 x 37 cm | 17 3/4 x 14 5/8 in (unframed) 50.8 x 43.2 cm | 20 x 17 in (framed)

In the scrub

2018

Watercolour, gouache on paper

23.5 x 32.5 cm | 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 in

Biography

In Ciarán Murphy’s paintings we encounter an unsettling array of things; sticks, rocks, martian landscapes, insects, interiors, hands, letters, blank screens, architectural feature and geometric shapes. Objects seem in varying states of flux: things float, or seem in the midst of changing form, while other things seem barely there, are entirely absent, or in various states of becoming. They all seem to have in one way or another a vexed relationship to gravity.

Murphy’s paintings can be understood as an effort to grapple with the fact that we live in a world where images are omnipresent, exerting an almost ghostly or spectral presence in our everyday existence. Temporalities are increasingly blurred and our very notions of what constitutes reality is, in itself, a process mediated by images. In some ways the work grapples with the idea of untangling representation from reality or if such an untangling is even possible.

Ciarán Murphy (1978 Mayo, IE) received his BA at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin in 2003 and his MA in Visual Arts Practices (MAVIS), IADT, Dublin in 2005. Solo exhibitions include 15 single-word titled paintings at Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin (IE); Ciarán Murphy at GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Ciarán Murphy at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago (US); Ciarán Murphy Cerealart, Philadelphia (US); All That’s Air Melts Into Solid at GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); The Paradise Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (IE); A particular nothing GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL). Murphy has participated in group shows at Gallery Massimo Carassi, Milan (IT); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (IE); the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (IE); and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (IE).

Curriculum Vitae

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Exhibitions

Press