Christopher Murphy
Christopher Murphy spent his youth building elaborate miniature dioramas and scale models, and the restless attention to detail required for those pursuits translates to his meticulous realist oil paintings and drawings. Murphy’s subjects range from portraits to cityscapes to the occasional apocalyptic landscape, with themes of isolation, stillness, and a dark wit lending a disquieting oddness to them all. Murphy builds paintings in layered oils, allowing each layer to dry completely before applying another, with no mixing of wet paint on the canvas. Because this process is slow and labor intensive, he works from photographic reference, often employing found materials from family albums and estate sales. New realities are created by dramatically restaging the action or stillness, recontextualizing figures, or inventing scenarios only hinted at in the source materials.
Christopher Murphy was born April 19, 1977, and grew up in Irvine, California. He attended Art Center College of Design, where he graduated with a BFA and the highest honor of distinction. His earliest and most lasting influences are the painters Lucien Freud, Antonio López García, and Robert Bechtle. He was selected as the New American Paintings Reader’s Choice Winner for 2012.
Christopher Murphy was born April 19, 1977, and grew up in Irvine, California. He attended Art Center College of Design, where he graduated with a BFA and the highest honor of distinction. His earliest and most lasting influences are the painters Lucien Freud, Antonio López García, and Robert Bechtle. He was selected as the New American Paintings Reader’s Choice Winner for 2012.
RESUME
1977 Born: Irvine, CA
Education
2002 B.F.A., Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Ebb, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2017 Idle, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2013 Sturm and Drang, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2011 Forget That You Were Young, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2008 The Dawn of Luxury, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2005 Matter in the Wrong Place, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2003 Only A Reed, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2002 Creative Artist Agency, Beverly Hills, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Summer Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Landscapes Revisited, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Small Paintings, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2011 Gallery Artists, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2010 small works, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Faces, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2009 The Toy Show II, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2009 Draw the Line, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2006 Undertow, Metalstone Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Image & Enigma, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2002 Paintings, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2002 Figure This II, Fine Art Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, CA
2002 Group Show, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
2002 Group Show, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
2001 Group Show, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
Awards
2012 New American Paintings Reader’s Choice Award
Bibliography
2011 Zellen, Jody. Christopher Murphy, Art Scene, Vol. 31, No. 1, September 2011
2008 Ollman, Leah. His Paintings Capture Change, Los Angeles Times, September 19
2006 Zellen, Jody. ‘Christopher Murphy’ at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Art Papers, March/April
2004 Frank, Peter. ‘Image & Enigma’ at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Artweek, February 2004
2003 Blizzard, Peggy. Artist has successful first solo professional show, Irvine World News, August 21
2003 Knight, Christopher. Emergence from the void, Los Angeles Times, July 25
