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PROJECT ATRIUM: ETHAN MURROW

Plethora

JULY 16, 2016 - OCTOBER 30, 2016

 

narcissus by ethan murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Narcissus, 2012. Graphite on paper, 36 x 41 inches. Photo credit: Clements Photo.

commonplace by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Commonplace, 2015. Graphite on paper, 44 x 44 inches. Photo credit: Clements Photo.

error by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Error, 2011. Graphite on paper, 20 x 36 inches. Private collection. Photo credit: Clements Photo.

pluto by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Pluto, 2014. Sharpie on wall. Installation view of commission for Facebook Boston, Massachusetts. Photo credit: Clements Photo.

portmanteau by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Portmanteau, 2015. Sharpie on wall, commissioned wall drawing as part of exhibition Far, Far Away at the Children’s Museum of Photography, New York, New York. 

raw diet increasing audacity and night vision by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Raw diet increasing audacity and night vision, 2009. Graphite on paper, 36 x 26 inches. Private collection. Photo credit: Adam Reich Photography. 

seastead by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Seastead, 2015. Sharpie on wall. Installation view of commissioned wall drawing on Fineberg Art Wall at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts. Photo credit: Clements Photo. 

detail view of seastead by Ethan Murrow

© ETHAN MURROW, Seastead (detail), 2015. Sharpie on wall. Installation view of commissioned wall drawing on Fineberg Art Wall at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts. Photo credit: Clements Photo.

IN HIS AMBITIOUS wall drawings, Boston-based Ethan Murrow combines found and invented imagery to form unexpected yet photorealistic scenes drenched with humor and irony. Using Sharpie markers, Murrow produces a larger-than-life human figure caught in the act of indulgence. As the figure devours masses of fresh food, the site-specific wall drawing exposes a moment of excess, gluttony, desire, and privilege. Inspired by still-life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, Murrow's absurd fête questions the role of consumption and history of commerce as his character delves into his insatiable desires.

ARTIST

headshot of Ethan Murrow

ETHAN MURROW

Ethan Murrow received his bachelor's degree from Carleton College and his MFA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Recent solo shows of drawings, video, and sculpture include La Galerie Particulière in Paris and Brussels, Slete Gallery in Los Angeles, Winston Wachter Fine Art in New York City and Seattle, and the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in West Virginia. Murrow was recently commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston to build a two-story wall drawing for the Feinberg Art Wall in the museum's lobby. His work is in many public, private, and corporate collections and has been reviewed and published widely around the world. Murrow is a professor at the Museum School at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Murrow is MOCA Jacksonville's 2017 Stein Prize recipient.

Photo by Stewart Clements Photo.

SPONSORS

SUPPORTING

Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow, Jessie Ball duPont Fund