jamesaustinmurray

[jamesaustinmurray]

#brasilia #2024 New Year’s Eve

[jamesaustinmurray]

Savoring Existence (diptych), oil on canvas, 92" × 48"- 234 × 122cm, 2023

#abstractart #blackandwhite #monochrome #james austin murray #new york #blackpainting

[jamesaustinmurray]

James Austin Murray, Silver Starfish, 72"-183cm diameter, oil on panel, 2020

#abstract #art #blackandwhite #abstractart #james austin murray #abstractpainting #new york #monochrome

[jamesaustinmurray]

As we disconnected from nature due to the electric light bulb, it changed our habits. Humans used to sleep in two cycles. Most waking in the middle of the night, sometimes even socialize, and then go back to sleep a second time. Second sleep is referenced in multiple works of fiction and nonfiction throughout history. Before the electric light, it made sense to sleep shortly after it was dark. This change also coincides with the Industrial Revolution.

When I began making my black paintings, they were just little exercises. For the first few weeks, I used the same canvas and wiped it down at the end of the day. I had been working on a very different body of work, and these exercises were for me to loosen up. I was interested in how much could be seen in the mark-making of just the color black. It was looking at light in a new way. That new way led me to explore the history of light and how it relates to the story of human kind. 

[jamesaustinmurray]

Gravity Well, 84" x 48", Oil on shaped canvas, 2012

We seem somewhat self-aware that the advent of the internet has changed our society in numerous ways. It’s been a radical shift in how we operate and think in a short period of history. I would posit that a similarly seismic shift happened only 100-150 years ago. That shift occurred when we started using electricity. Specifically electric light. 

Instead of humans being automatically aware of the night sky and the moon's phases, we disconnected. Before electric light, we had been more integrated with nature. Knowing the moon's phase also gave us a type of calendar in the sky. It is related to crops and livestock. It connected us to the sky, our earth, and our seas. Just like we can still look up at the sun and gauge the time of day by at least morning, midday, and evening, looking up at night, we could once measure the time of the month. Electricity removed this as necessary or even obvious knowledge. It’s not lost knowledge, but it’s no longer commonly understood by most.

[jamesaustinmurray]

Invincible Serenity, 64 x 48" - 162 x 122 cm, Oil on shaped canvas, 2012, (Collection of David Ramsay and Richard Stewart.)

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As I delved into these questions, they proliferated. I found myself thinking about our collective history as it relates to light. When we look at the night sky, almost all of the starlight we see is ancient. Some of the light we see precedes life on Earth and even Earth itself.

The sky, where the predominance of light originates, also has a story about our human connection to light. When I was in my early 20’s, I spent a year living in Košice, Slovakia. The Slovak language uses the same word for moon and month. This word is Mesiac, and it’s also a slang term used for a woman having her period. From this, I started looking at the words in other languages, and the same or similar words are used in a number of languages. It’s no secret that the moon orbits our planet every 27 days, called the sidereal month. We also have the Lunar Month of 30 days. Putting all three of these things together makes it evident that there’s more going on than our contemporary brains can automatically see. Not to say we cannot put together the pieces, but they are not patently obvious.

[jamesaustinmurray]

My black paintings are paradoxically about light. 

Years ago, while working at Bloomberg Television doing TV graphics, I worked with a 3D program. It was not so different from the software Pixar uses but more rudimentary at the time. Each pixel was drawn through a set of parameters. One was the light source or several sources. The specific type of light source was considered, as was the distance to the object being rendered. Other factors included the atmosphere in the space and the type of surface the light landed on. Was the surface reflective or mat? Did it have texture, or was it smooth? 

I realized that this ability to simulate how the light hits an object was all a matter of math. That math was based on our reality. Every color and piece of light got there through a system fused from multiple sources. Understanding light in this manner brought me to question light everywhere. What was affecting the light I was perceiving? How was my mind perceiving it? Clearly, there is a conglomerate of aspects that interweave together for us to see each piece of light.

[jamesaustinmurray]

Rio de Janeiro 5AM this morning. Pão de Açúcar the lower rock hiding the upper part.

[jamesaustinmurray]

Soul String, 72x72”-183x183cm, oil on panel, 2021

#abstract #abstractart #abstractpainting #james austin murray #art 2021 #blackandwhite #art #curator

[jamesaustinmurray]

James Austin Murray, The Upend, oil on canvas, 36x36”-92x92cm, 2020

[jamesaustinmurray]

Not yet titled, oil on board, 36” or 92cm Square. 2020

[jamesaustinmurray]

Earth Painting no. 1, acrylic paint made with Earth from Jaipur India, during Gandhi Utsev, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth.

[jamesaustinmurray]

In the studio with new works. #nycartist #manacontemporary #oilpainting #monochrome #blackpainting #abstractpainting #abstractartist #curator (at Mana Contemporary) https://www.instagram.com/p/BobjdsLhSHg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=18gsgwqmjnpit

#nycartist #manacontemporary #oilpainting #monochrome #blackpainting #abstractpainting #abstractartist #curator

[jamesaustinmurray]

From the archives- Tamesis III, diptych, oil on canvas, 62” x 50”, 158 x 127cm, 2011 #nycartist #manacontemporary #oilpainting #monochrome #blackpainting #abstractpainting (at New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnR1vnrBd_g/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=k2nrwvidam12

#nycartist #manacontemporary #oilpainting #monochrome #blackpainting #abstractpainting

[jamesaustinmurray]

One of these two Couwenberg's are coming back to New York with me, lucky me! #abstract #art #abstractart #abstraction #creative #artsy #abstracto #blackandwhite #alexcouwenberg #twoartists (at Duarte, California)

#art #abstracto #artsy #alexcouwenberg #blackandwhite #abstraction #twoartists #abstract #creative #abstractart

[jamesaustinmurray]

Five years after we first talked about it at Bemis, James Gilbert and I got some surfing in here in California. Thanks for the surfing tips and the studio visit! (at La Jolla Cove)

[jamesaustinmurray]

With experiments, thanks to Greg Merritt for the photo. (at Madison Gallery Contemporary Art)