Robert Murray: 3D and 2D Works

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Robert Murray, 3D and 2D Works, an exhibition surveying the sculptor’s abstract artworks from 1968 through 2019 that coincides with the publication of Murray’s first-ever monograph that covers his six-decade career including discussions of his artworks and processes, influences that informed his work and friendships. The monograph, Robert Murray: Sculpture, was written by Jonathan D. Lippincott and published by Design Books. The gallery presentation includes large sculptures, working models on pedestals, sculptural landscape reliefs on the wall, paintings on canvas, paintings on paper and woodblock prints. The presentation will be on view from April 7 through May 4, 2019 with an opening reception and book signing on Sunday, April 7 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM on the Ground Floor exhibition space at 211 East 121 ST, New York, NY 10035. Please contact the gallery at [email protected] or call 212-882-1705 or cell 505-467-9742 for additional information.

Murray creates reductive, abstract geometric sculptures in steel and aluminum using industrial fabrication techniques, and painted with minimal color palettes. His influences are the landscape, topographical views from his small airplane (flying is one of his passions) and the culture, motifs and imagery of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the US. Murray was born and raised in Western Canada and arrived in New York in 1960 where he developed his visual language and quickly gained recognition for his distinct contemporary sculptures with clean lines, geometric shapes and bright colors that compliment both the wilderness as well as urban public spaces. His use of a single color leverages the light, shadows and surface to create dynamic structures and internal tension that suggest volume and movement with the greatest economy of means.

This exhibition also presents a wide range of Murray’s two-dimensional works in metal, paint and hand-made prints that are each distinct series of artworks in dialog with the three-dimensional sculptures. The two-dimensional works have been an integral part of Murray’s practice and allow him to explore color palettes and color relationships in a systematic way on a flat painted surface by adapting and utilizing compositional elements and processes from his sculptures. The landscape relief series and paintings on paper are examples of his sensitivity to and observation of the land. Reduced to basic forms, each has a unique shape and purpose fitting into the large landscape and view.

About Robert Murray:
Following studies at the University of Saskatchewan’s Regina College School of Art, Murray participated in the Emma Lake Artist’s workshops in the late 1950s under the leadership of Jack Shadbolt, Barnett Newman, John Ferren, Clement Greenberg and others. There, he forged a long-lasting friendship with Newman who shared similar interests in Indigenous art. In 1960, Murray moved to New York and exhibited with Betty Parsons Gallery and Paula Cooper Gallery, both in New York and David Mirvish Gallery in Toronto. He has had 70 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries through his six-decade career and his artworks included in numerous group exhibitions. Murray represented Canada at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1969 and was included in multiple Annual and Biennial exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Retrospectives of his work have been held at the Dayton Art Institute, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Centro Culturale Canadese in Rome, and Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. The National Gallery of Canada hosted a major retrospective in 1999, documenting Murray’s contributions to modern art in Canada and the United States. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 2000 and received the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Grant Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018. Murray’s artworks are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, among others.

About David Richard Gallery:
Since its inception in 2010, David Richard Gallery has produced museum quality exhibitions that feature Post War abstraction in the US. The presentations have addressed specific decades and geographies as well as certain movements and tendencies. While the gallery has long been recognized as an important proponent of post-1960s abstraction—including both the influential pioneers as well as a younger generation of practitioners in this field— in keeping with this spirit of nurture and development the gallery also presents established artists who embrace more gestural and representational approaches to the making of art as well as young emerging artists.

In 2015 David Richard Gallery launched DR Art Projects to provide a platform for artists of all stripes—international, national, local, emerging and established—to present special solo projects or to participate in unique collaborations or thematic exhibitions. The goal is to offer a fresh look at contemporary art practice from a broad spectrum of artists and presentations. The Gallery opened its current location in New York in 2017.