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“Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings”   -Agnes Martin

Threshold presents a series of large-scale drawings that examine the relationship between architectural exterior and psychological interior.

Murray’s work begins with two assumptions. One, that intentionally designed form carries both base human imagery and accumulated historical meaning (usually the evidence of outdated power structures). And two, the sheer ubiquity and endless remixing of these forms has the effect of neutralizing this embedded meaning at the level of everyday experience. The result is an abundance of form that seems relatable and teases our intellectual curiosity while remaining largely mysterious; a blank slate that is actually anything but.

These unique conditions of the built environment allow for a complementary relationship between it and our psychological interior, as exterior forms often serve as a scaffold or landing place for our inner thoughts.

Using designed forms as raw material for a still life subject, Murray creates drawings which are at once interior and exterior, still life and portrait, in an effort to actualize and share this nuanced aspect of lived experience.

Erin Murray is an artist who lives and works in Philadelphia. Recent solo exhibitions have been at Vox Populi Gallery, Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York, and the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington. In 2012 she was awarded the West Collects acquisition prize and the Fleisher Wind Challenge exhibition grant. You can find her work published in New American Paintings, Tabletop Zine, and Dirty Laundry magazine. She holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has been a member of the artist-run collective Vox Populi since 2012.