Kukje Gallery is pleased to announce Catalyst, a solo exhibition of work by Oscar Murillo on view from November 29, 2018, to January 6, 2019. A timely introduction to the expansive oeuvre the artist has developed over the past six years, Murillo’s first solo presentation in Korea will be comprised of approximately 20 works. These include an installation of sprawling black canvases punctuated by his flight drawings, catalyst paintings, and a new video work. In addition Murillo will show paintings from his ongoing series of composite paintings. The installation in the gallery’s K2 and K3 spaces will profoundly reinterpret the white cube, infusing it with a state of tension and condensed energy.
Born in 1986 in Colombia, Oscar Murillo immigrated to London with his family in 1997. Murillo is best known for his dynamic painting style that is marked by ferocious scribbles of oil paint on fabrics of varying sizes and textures that are then stitched together to create unique assemblages. A closer look into his practice, however, reveals that the artist possesses a vast and highly idiosyncratic vocabulary wherein he responds to each exhibition’s specific context, an approach that allows Murillo to combine various mediums including drawing, print, painting, video, installation, and performance.
The flight drawings, installed intermittently throughout the exhibition space, offer a record of the time that the artist has spent in transit, usually on airplanes or in hotels. The drawings resemble a multi-layered stream of consciousness, as if a complex chain of thoughts and information has been downloaded from the brain through the artist’s hand, only then to escape through the tip of the ballpoint pen. Despite this frenzied energy, however, there still exists a sense of order within Murillo’s obsessive mark-making, materialized in repeated renderings of flight paths, maps, signs, and initials. Securing a physical distance from the ground, flying creates a fissure in even the most basic unit of measurement of time. Yet, given that flight paths are governed by the political landscapes thousands of meters below (i.e. national borders, travel and trade routes, etc.) the dynamics of flying are inseparable from the laws of the ground. As such, flight provides the artist an opportunity to observe the current social conditions through a more horizontal and abstract lens. Together with the flight drawings, the exhibition will showcase a video work that highlights mobility and explores the perpetual state of flux embodied in the drawings.
Exhibited in K3, Murillo has installed a grouping of his large catalyst paintings. This ongoing series expands upon the elements of psychological anxiety imbued in his drawings, translating them into fields of condensed, dynamic energies. Murillo likens the production of these paintings to a physical process of consuming and expending energy. The artist depends solely on very basic tools to accumulate physical energy on the canvas, committing himself to the automatic, intuitive process of mark-making—a process that is reminiscent of a ritual, whereby one reaches a state of catharsis through a repetitive act. As alluded to in the title, Murillo’s paintings are not merely a byproduct of this action, but the impetus that creates and sustains his versatile works beyond the white cube.
In K2 and K3, Murillo’s black canvases serve to reconcile his various works into a cohesive context. This approach to installation plays a significant role within the artist’s overall practice as it reflects his interest in the exhibition space as an interactive arena—open both to the surrounding environment and audience—that allows for new and ongoing interpretations of the work. Coated with multiple layers of black paint on each side, the canvases are cut and then sewn back together into new compositions in collaboration with family members and friends. The canvases are subsequently left on the floor of the studio and allowed to age; some also travel to various exhibition spaces where they collect their own patina of dust, dirt, and the remnants of time. In this way, the black canvases remain open to variable conditions of the everyday. First presented in 2015 at the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, this vast collection of black canvases were also draped over the façade of the Central Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale that same year. Later they were installed as part of the Anyang Public Art Project in 2016 and the Sharjah Biennial in 2017, with each exhibition reflecting its site specificity. At Kukje Gallery, a group of black canvases will be exhibited alongside sculptures made from corn and clay. These organic pieces are sculpted to embody infinitely mutable forms that serve as a metaphor for the cycle of production and consumption.
Also on view in K2 are Murillo’s composite paintings, an ongoing series the artist has engaged with since 2013. One of the artist’s most recognizable bodies of work, here patches of fabric in various scales are recomposed to create a singular pictorial plane, an amalgam of different textures and symbols. Added to the surface are energetic and gestural brushstrokes, which echo the unregulated lines in the flight drawings and catalyst paintings. Evoking a patchwork of different times and places, this particular series of paintings compresses and edits found imagery from travel ephemera, appropriated texts, and numeric symbols. Representing a kind of dark remnant of globalization and capitalism, these elements are assembled one on top of the other, infused with a sense of acceleration amidst the fragments of different geographical regions.
Throughout his practice, Murillo actively maintains an emotional and physical distance from the ongoing sociopolitical conflicts around the world by positioning himself in a self-imposed, perpetual displacement and challenging the notion of stability. The stitched, drawn, or painted lines dominant in his work have been interpreted as a visual metaphor for the divisions, thresholds, and liminal spaces that govern contemporary conditions—alluding to­ capital flows, flight paths, and migratory routes. Attesting to his faith in an artist’s responsibility to engage the dark currents underlying politics and to raise awareness of the urgency for a “horizontal connectedness,” the mainstays of his itinerant practice speaks to art’s potential as a catalyst for reconciling with one’s past, present, and future.
Oscar Murillo (b. 1986) earned his B.F.A. from the University of Westminster (2007) and his M.F.A. from the Royal College of Art, London (2012). Murillo’s works are fundamentally tied to questions about the cycle of labor, production, consumption, and the environment where he produces them. The artist’s prodigious practice has been the focus of many important solo exhibitions at numerous institutions including Haus der Kunst, Munich (2017), CAPC museé d'art contemporain de Bordeaux (2017), Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku (2016), and South London Gallery (2013). Selected group exhibitions include the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018), Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017), the 5th Anyang Public Art Project (2016), and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Murillo’s works are housed in major museums and private collections, including the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, among others.
K2와 K3에서 마주하는 검게 드리워진 캔버스 설치는 다양한 작업들이 공간 안에서 하나의 맥락으로 연결되도록 한다. 전시장을 열린 일종의 경기장이자 무대로 간주하여 관객, 환경과의 상호작용을 이끌어내고 새로운 의미를 형성하려는 작가에게 있어 특히 주요한 작업이다. 캔버스 천 위에 검은 물감을 여러 겹 채워낸 후 조각 내고 이를 친척, 지인 등 주변 이들과의 협업 하에 새로운 구성과 패턴으로 바느질하여 엮는다. 이는 이후 스튜디오 바닥에 놓인 채 새로운 층을 덧입히거나 재구성되기도 하고, 각종 전시 공간에 설치되어 먼지, 흙, 얼룩 등 시간의 흔적이 자연스럽게 빚어내는 유동적인 요소들에 열린 작업으로 지속되어왔다. 마치 피부 혹은 거죽처럼 펼쳐진 어두운 캔버스 군단은 2015년 콜롬비아 국립대학교 미술관 개인전에서 첫 선을 보인 후 같은 해 제56회 베니스비엔날레 전시관 전면에 거대한 행렬의 깃발로 설치되었고, 2016년 안양공공예술프로젝트, 2017년 샤르자 비엔날레에서도 장소특정적 설치로 선보인 바 있다. 검은 캔버스 천과 함께 설치되는 곡물과 점토가 뒤엉킨 유기적인 형태의 덩어리들은 무한한 변형의 가능성, 그리고 생산과 소비에 대한 작가의 비판적인 비유다.
K2 1층에서 선보이는 무리조의 회화는 2013년부터 지속된 작가의 대표 작업으로, 다양한 크기로 분열된 천 조각들이 하나의 표면으로 재구성되어 질감, 기호들이 응집된 혼합물로 드러난다. 이 표면 위에 거칠게 표현한 추상적인 선이 담아내는 자유분방한 에너지는 〈flight〉, 〈catalyst〉 연작과도 유사한 결을 띤다. 마치 다른 시간과 지역의 흔적을 담은 조각보처럼, 작가가 여행하며 경험한 개발도상국가 도시들의 일상 풍경 내에 잠식한 세계화와 자본주의의 어두운 잔재를 표상하는 듯한 이미지, 단어, 숫자 등을 재편집한 작업들로 다양한 지역, 역사, 현실의 층위가 한 화면 위에서 교차되고 응집되는 과정을 속도감 있게 담아낸다.
적극적으로 의도한 이동과 소셜 미디어를 통해 세계를 마주하는 작가는 각지에서 일어나는 정치적 분쟁, 사회적 갈등과 정서적, 물리적인 거리감을 형성하고 이로써 일련의 사건들을 객관화 및 추상화한다. 무리조의 작업 표면에는 수놓거나 그린 일련의 선들이 지배적으로 나타난다. 현대 사회를 통제하는 자본의 흐름, 비행 혹은 이주 경로 등을 암시하는 듯 보이는 이 선들은 지정학적 기표인 분단선, 국경 등의 시각적 표상으로 읽혀진다. 무리조는 제3의 시각으로 현상의 어두운 이면을 포착하고 수평적 유대감에 대한 인식을 고취시키는 것이 작가의 사명이라 본다. 국제갤러리에서의 이번 개인전은 우리의 과거, 현재, 미래와 화해의 촉매로 기능하는 예술의 어떠한 가능성을 제시하는 오스카 무리조만의 함축적인 작업 세계를 만나볼 수 있는 좋은 기회가 될 것이다.
오스카 무리조(b. 1986)는 2007년 영국 런던에 소재한 웨스트민스터 대학에서 순수미술을 전공한 후, 중등학교 교사로 활동하다 곧 그만두고 남미로 여행을 떠났다. 그 후 2012년, 영국왕립예술대학교에서 석사 학위를 취득하며 작가로서의 활동에 본격적인 시동을 걸었다. 버려진 사탕 껍질이나 통조림 라벨 등을 회화에 편입하거나 화려한 컬러들과 병치하여 특유의 에너지가 넘치는 회화로 재탄생시키는 작가의 작품 전반에는 생산과 소비, 그리고 그 과정에서 작동하는 노동력에 대한 질문이 전제되어 있다. 무리조는 독일 하우스 데어 쿤스트 뮌헨(2017), 프랑스 보르도 현대미술관(2017), 아제르바이잔 바쿠 야라트 현대미술관(2016), 영국 사우스 런던 갤러리(2013) 등의 주요 기관에서 개인전을 개최했으며, 주요 단체전으로는 제10회 베를린 비엔날레(2018), 아랍에미리트 샤르자에서 개최된 제13회 샤르자 비엔날레(2017), 제5회 안양공공예술프로젝트(2016), 제56회 베니스 비엔날레(2015) 등이 있다. 이탈리아 튜린에 소재한 재단 폰다지오네 산드레토 리 리바우덴고, 미국 로스앤젤레스 현대미술관, 미국 마이애미 루벨 패밀리 컬렉션, 벨기에 헨트 스테델릭 현대미술관(S.M.A.K)과 같은 유수의 미술관과 주요 컬렉션에 소장되어 있다.