Interview Posted

Nearly a year old, the interview done with Jacqueline Mabey in May of 2007 is now posted at wilmurray.com, or download the PDF here.
This is the interview that appears in the artist binder at the current show in Vancouver.

My studio floor never looked so good

My studio floor never looked so good as under the feet of Pas Chic Chic on the cover of the Mirror.
They're launching their record on the 1st of April.
Photo by Yannick Grandmont.

Sled Isand 2008 Press Conference

The cat's out of the bag.
I will be presenting two shows at the Sled Arts Festival.
The first being and exhibition of my paintings with lenticular prints by Justin Evans. The opening for this show will include a performance by Gavin Sheehan, and a screening of a film by Mark Loeser.
The second being an exhibition of current and former Calgarian painters I am curating. Featuring the work of Miriam Bankey, Chris Millar, Dave & Jenn, Ryan Sluggett, Kyle Beal, Kim Neudorf and Patrick Lundeen.
More detail on both soon.

Originally posted by Aubrey at CJSW.com:

"It looks like another banner year for Sled Island, one of western Canada's brightest music festivals. SI '08 will be taking place between June 25th-28th at some of Calgary's finest venues.

At a press conference this afternoon, festival director Zak Pashak, guest music curator Scott Kannberg (Preston School of Industry, Pavement) and other festival participants revealed a glimpse at the initial line-up. It's going to be a white hot June, gang.

Confirmed acts include seminal British punk rockers Wire, Jonathan Richman, The Gutter Twins, Of Montreal, American Music Club, Jose Gonzales, RZA (Bobby Digital), Mogwai, Scott Kannberg a.k.a. Spiral Stairs, No Age, Deerhunter, The Dodos, Drive By Truckers, Extra Golden, Miss Murgatroid & Petra Hayden, Woodpigeon, Beans, Hot Little Rocket, The Broken West, Cave Singers, Wet Secrets, Pride Tiger, Portastatic, Headlights, Ramblin' Ambassadors, Bison, Mother Mother, Elizabeth, Modern Man, Luther Wright, The Whitsundays, Elliott Brood and Carolyn Mark.

The full line-up will be announced on May 1st.

Sled Island's 2008 visual art curator, Wayne Baerwaldt (IKG) spoke about a few exciting exhibitions which will be unveiled to Calgarians during the festival. Works include Peaches' Pit (an installation featuring a walk-through cave lined with hundreds of items that have been thrown to the singer onstage), a series by Wil Murray (featuring works by former Calgarians) and a narrative but abstract series by surf aficionado and Brazilian artist Paulo Whitaker.

Early bird festival passes will soon be available at SledIsland.com. Stay tuned to CJSW for insider information on all things Sled Island 2008!"

Photo:Sled Island Press Conference. Beth Gignac (City of Calgary), Zak Pashak (Sled Island Festival Director), Wayne Baerwaldt (Sled Island 2008 Visual Art Curator), Scott Kannberg (Sled Island 2008 Music Curator, Preston School of Industry, Pavement).

Which New Painting?

To chase the new, to value the contemporary is as intentional as deciding to be an ancient Egyptian. Don’t put it past me, bouffant black hair, eyes ringed in black, holding a staff or a can of beer, maybe.
Historical movements, constructed in the workshop of art history, are encapsulated, started and finished without us. We are positioned after their occurrence. Our claims to contemporary practices are made by our proximity to their inception, how soon we knew them, how early we believed them. In historical movements, we are given the relief of a death never felt in person, in new work, the hope of a birth without a life we’re responsible to. Unless we really like the baby.
I’ve not really not been a fan of new painting. By the same token, I am not a fan. In fact, I’ve always loved new painting as much I needed to in order to paint, and show my work, and feel less alone. I've loved new painting to capacity while I wondered which "New Painting" the internal imaginary interviewer was asking about.
I understand most easily new painting when I can see it within miles of my home. I can imagine how the work got there after the last show on the same walls, and can ask questions that ground the work near my own. “Where is his studio?” “Where are they from? Here? Where I'm from?”
I have to figure out less about the how when I see new paintings nearby. Old men don’t travel to other cities to watch construction sites, the most interesting ones are found nearest to your house because you can remember last week when the street wasn’t a gaping pit and you crossed it where you liked as long as the cars weren’t trying to kill you.
Maybe old men would travel if they could. Maybe old men who watch construction sites have been broke so long that travel doesn't even enter the equation. Maybe they keep their minds of travel down at the construction site, watching with the other old men. Now I'm just being cute like Calvino, or the lyrics to all that new adult contemporary music coming from Canada.

I like painting.
No much of it, though.
They hit hardest near to home.
It is hard to tell with paintings, when they all hang on the wall kind of the same, when they are from. The smell can give it away.
Sometimes the smell gives away that they were painted last week.

I go to galleries a lot. More than I go to movies, less than I imagine art historians go. Mostly I go on sunny days when I am in another city, or on Tuesdays when I am in Montreal.
I keep trying to walk into a gallery and have this all change. To be knocked on my ass and care more about what did it than my ass pain. Or my embarrassment. That's like feeling self-concious when you're drunk, and trying to drink it away because you heard that booze lowers your inhibitions
Maybe this is why I don't collect painting.


* The top photo is from the opening of "the strange space that keeps us together" at the Belkin Satellite. In the photo is Colin, Me , and Jacqueline Mabey. I don't know who took it. The show is still up and you should all go see it before April 6th.

Dragon Fruit, Rose Apples, Roseeeeee, Lions Eating Horses

As I am in Vancouver, with a stomach full of unfamiliar exotic fruits and cheese and wine, I am apt to give answers to interviews a little differently than usual.
Andrea Carson over at VoCa sent me 5 interview questions, and reviewed my work a bit on her blog. Vancouver cast a long shadow over the answers to these questions, read them here.
I am overjoyed to be heading into my opening tomorrow at the Belkin Satellite with a post on my work that includes and image of "Lion Attacking a Horse".
See you there.