Toronto Star Review Of Strawberry Alarmist Talk Radio

At the Galleries

A rather dim view of the future links "Current Affairs," by Linda Heffernan to "Strawberry Alarmist Talk Radio," by Wil Murray (both at Loop, 1174 Queen St. W., closes tomorrow). In fact, both artists are united in pointing out who is to blame – the media, at least indirectly.

In Affluent Effluent (2007) and There may be water over the bridge (2007), the Whitby-based artist positions tiny, distant people, seemingly relaxed and out for a walk on water – or across the surface of the painting itself. In the way the brush strokes were vigorously slashed across the canvas, the artist is sending an urgent message warning of something dangerous about to happen.

Wil Murray paints in order to outlast the "quotidian horror, confusion and terror." Faced with such an awful future the Montreal-based artist views his multi-layered works as if they were time capsules, so impenetrably dense and thick they'll outlast him by a long shot.

"Scattershot," by Lauri Lynnxe Murphy (Brayham Contemporary Art, 1270 Queen St E., until Sept. 2) asks us to go where few gallery visitors have ever gone before – deep into Toronto's east end. The gallery is the brainchild of curator Angela Brayham.

Although smallish, Brayham Contemporary may be on to something big: a burgeoning new art district to breathe fresh air into the entire scene. Influenced by pop culture, her work exists somewhere between painting and site-specific sculpture. "Each painting is like a phrase, word or sentence, or perhaps even a rebus, whose subtext expands beyond its obvious parts," she says.

-Peter Goddard
August 11, 2007