DAVID MURPHY

Both a painter and sculptor, Murphy’s work explores the interplay between volume, light, space and line. The forms that inhabit David Murphy’s works often develop out of accumulations - discrete actions that embrace unpredictability within repetitive processes. With the Long Ending and Blanket paintings, Murphy prepares Gesso Panels using traditional French chalk and rabbit skin glue following a technique devised by Cennino Cennini in the 15th century. To this surface Murphy applies multiple layers of casein paint in meshed lines, to create a dense textile-like surface. Once dry, and polished, a sequence of more or less regular lines are scratched with an etching needle into the surface, excavating an image from the chalk that teeters on the brink of three-dimensions. These are slow and meditative abstract works that remain highly allusive: at once recalling the microcosm and the macrocosm, tracks and furrows, mountains and valleys, fabrics or upholstery.