Ciarán Murphy
Born 1978, Mayo (IE)
Lives and works in Callan (IE)
In Ciarán Murphy’s paintings we encounter an unsettling array of familiar and unfamiliar forms; sticks, rocks, Martian landscapes, insects, interiors, hands, letters, blank screens, architectural features and geometric shapes. Objects seem in varying states of flux: things float, are in the midst of changing form, while other things are barely there, entirely absent, or in various states of becoming. They all seem to have in one way or another a vexed relationship to gravity. The paintings capture a sense of place through fragments, charting the artist’s exploration of a familiar landscape along with associated perceptions, highlights, and memories.
Murphy’s paintings can be understood as an effort to deal 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 a process mediated by images. Murphy’s work grapples with the idea of untangling representation from reality, if such an untangling is even possible.
Ciarán Murphy (b. 1978 in Mayo, IE) received his BA at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (IE) in 2003 and his MA in Visual Arts Practices (MAVIS), IADT, Dublin (IE) in 2005. Murphy has a museum solo exhibition at The Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin forthcoming titled Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily opening in November 2020. Other solo exhibitions include, there, there now, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Hundreds of Nature, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); Plainsight, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); A Round Now, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, NY (US); The Paradise, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (IE); All That’s Air Melts Into Solid, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Ciarán Murphy, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (IE); March, Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin (IE); Ciarán Murphy at Cerealart, Philadelphia, PA (US); and Ciarán Murphy, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL (US). His work is in the collections of the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin (IE); the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin (IE); and the Sanders Collection, Haarlem (NL), among others.
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Ciarán Murphy
there, there now 1 Feb - 21 Mar 2020 GRIMM Keizersgracht 241, Amsterdam (NL) -
Away in the Hill
Group Exhibition 27 Jun - 2 Aug 2019 GRIMM 202 Bowery, New York, NY (US) -
Ciarán Murphy
Hundreds of Nature 21 Oct - 18 Nov 2018 GRIMM 202 Bowery, New York, NY (US) -
Pop-up GRIMM Brussels
Group Exhibition 18 Apr - 5 May 2018 Ravensteinstraat 44, Brussels (BE), Other locations -
Ciarán Murphy
Plainsight 13 Jan - 3 Mar 2018 GRIMM Keizersgracht 241, Amsterdam (NL) -
Ciarán Murphy
A Particular Nothing 27 Nov 2014 - 3 Jan 2015 Frans Halsstraat 26, Amsterdam (NL), Other locations -
Ciarán Murphy
Equipment 10 - 22 May 2011 Frans Halsstraat 26, Amsterdam (NL), Other locations -
Ciaran Murphy
All that’s air melts into solid 8 May - 19 Jun 2010 Keizersgracht 82, Other locations -
New Paintings
Group Exhibition 16 Jan - 6 Mar 2010 Keizersgracht 82, Other locations
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Ierse krachtschilder (in Dutch)
Edo Dijksterhuis , Het Parool, February 12, 2018 -
Drei Tage in Amsterdam
Simone von Sondermann, Weltkunst, January 30, 2018 -
Interview with Christina Kennedy of IMMA – Hennessy Art Fund
No More Workhorse, November 1, 2017 -
What Lies Beneath: Hare by Ciaran Murphy
Niall MacMonagle, Independent, August 14, 2017 -
In Line of Beauty
Luke Clancy, ArtReview, March 1, 2014 -
Painting is not dead - it's just hard
Gemma Tipton, The Irish Times, August 18, 2012 -
Fluid landscapes that melt and flow into one another
Aidan Dunne, The Irish Times, February 4, 2009 -
Ciaran Murphy
James Yood, Artforum, August 8, 2008 -
Ciaran Murphy
Luke Clancy, ArtReview, September 6, 2006