Burn Your Eyes Clean

Tape Modern No. 25 in Berlin

2012-01-04T04:32:00.005-05:00

Come see my newest work next week:

Opening: Friday, 13th of January 7pm-2am
Address: Heidestrasse 14, 10557 Berlin.
Free entry all night!

with:

Ron Abram
Leo Babsky
Maurice Baker
Marion Bataillard
Geeske Bijker
Jesse Dyer
Malte Hagen Olbertz
Arran Hearn
Thomas Heidtmann
Andreas Helfer
Otto Hernandez
Dirk Holzberg
Ieva Jansone
Filippos Kavakas
Henry Kleine
Pessi Margulies
Dennis Meier
Carola Mücke
Wil Murray
Sharon Paz
Matthias Schade
Marc Schamuthe
Johanna Silbermann
SPAR*K
Willi Tomes
Masaki Umetsu
Elmar Vestner
Lee Wagstaff
Sadie Weis

*Free entry all night!
*Image by LEE WAGSTAFF
*Tape Modern is organize by Amir Fattal and Jonathan Margulies
* Exhibition Assistant: Rita Guerreiro

Russian Girls, maybe pages collages

2011-12-08T05:40:00.002-05:00

A series of collages I made last sumer on arcademi, see more of the series here.

made from a book on traditional Russian folk dress(a common sort of photo book leftover from the days pf the DDR), and draped drop sheets I photographed covering my paintings.

Rover Art Fair In Montreal

2011-12-01T10:49:00.002-05:00

The Rover Art Fair starts tonight and goes all weekend.

I have 2 pieces in the fair, both from 2005 and some of the last pieces available from that period. Including the one pictured above "Jean-Talon Pantalon".

OPENING of Rover Art Fair 2011

Friday February 2nd, 2011 6-10pm

135 Van Horne, 2nd floor

PREVIEW Thurs Dec 1, 6–9 pm

FAIR Sat/Sun Dec 3–4 from 1–6 pm

p|m Gallery Toronto

2011-11-25T08:53:00.002-05:00

I am very pleased to announce I will be represented by p|m Gallery in Toronto, Canada.

You can check out my works and info on their page here.

I'll have a solo show opening there in October of 2012.

On it's way to Milwaukee

2011-09-14T03:04:00.005-04:00

2 paintings disassembled and crated up to go to my upcoming show "Askew" in Milwaukee at the Union Art Gallery - University of Wisconsin.

After some major problems with the American shipping company in brown shorts, I found a great guy in Berlin to work with. Email me if you need someone.

Joe came by yesterday

2011-08-30T05:20:00.004-04:00

Joe Dilworth came by yesterday to shoot my work and took some casual portraits too. My studio never looked so good.

L-L-L-L A-A-A-A

2011-08-26T13:35:00.001-04:00

Coming up next week in Claifornia:

softcoreHARD EDGE
August 29th – September 23rd, 2011

Opening Reception: Tuesday, August 30th 6pm to 9pm

Philip ArgentTim Bavington

Billy Al BengstonKarl Benjamin

Alexander CaldwellIngrid Calame

Eric CameronDave & Jenn

John EislerBradley Harms

Harry KiyookaAllison Miller

Lee MullicanMark Mullin

Wil MurrayCandace Nycz

Monique Prieto Laurel Smith

Curated by David Pagel and Marianne Elder in partnership with

The Art Gallery of Calgary and the Claremont Graduate University

SoftcoreHARD EDGE features artwork by eighteen artists

from Calgary and Los Angeles.

Claremont Graduate University
East and Peggy Phelps Galleries
251 E 10th Street
Claremont, CA 91711
Gallery Hours: M-F 10am to 5pm
909.621.8071

Animals of Distinction: Heart As Arena

2011-08-17T04:18:00.004-04:00

My pal Dana Gingras has been working on a new piece called Heart As Arena. I was lucky enough to live above the dance studio she and the dancers were working in. That was only a year and half ago, but it seems longer.

Sometimes the world lines up and sends me to places I should be. Last time this happened I wound up in Berlin and meeting the love of my life, this time I am headed to Vancouver at the beginning of October to see my oldest friend before he leaves town and catch the premier of this piece at the VECC on October 4th.

Most of my life in Montreal has dissolved. This piece feels like a time capsule for me, a small part that left the party before the cops showed up. Or maybe just it was a faultless time traveller that gave me a little glimpse of the life I would lead now.

I'm really proud of my friend and look forward to this, like everything I have ever seen by her, completely altering my own practice.

Video by Yannick Grandmont

Heart As Arena from Dana Gingras on Vimeo.

Art dies in the summer, but look at this new painting

2011-08-15T04:11:00.001-04:00

SPARKLE not SPARGEL

2011-07-25T05:02:00.003-04:00

The untitled art society in Calgary is holding a pretty fucking abgefahren fundraising party on August 6th. They're calling it Blitzen Die Partei, and hanging up some of my work and a few others' sparkly oeuvres. A few performances too, and some drinking and dancing.

Atelier Project Exhibition: June 30th in Berlin

2011-06-22T08:17:00.003-04:00

The Atelier Project Exhibition in the cavernous former cafeteria of the DDR radio complex will feature works by 8 international artists chosen in 2010 for the pilot visual arts project at the Funkhaus. This exhibition will be the first of a series of self-curated exhibitions by the artists working in a block of studios occupying warehouses and listening rooms on the first floor.
A haunting, empty space lit by the sun that served breakfast, lunch and dinner for decades, the former cafeteria is a location that represents well the ironic stillness and quiet the artists experience creating their pieces in the former workplace of thousands broadcasting to millions.

-Carla Busuttil (ZA)
-Steffen Geisler (D)
-Sibylle Jazra (D)
-Alexander J. Kraut (D)
-Eleni M (CY)
-Wil Murray (CA)
-Andrea Romero (MX)
-Martin Werthmann (D)

The exhibition is part of a larger opening event that includes:

The Funkhaus Art Prize 2011 exhibition
The Funkhaus Atelier Program exhibition
The open Studios of the Funkhaus Ateliers

Opening: 30 of June 18h-23h
Duration: 1-2 July 12h-17h

The opening will follow by an outdoor party on the bank of the spree and a BBQ!

Callin' From The Funkhaus

2011-06-19T06:12:00.004-04:00

June 30th to July 3rd....Big event at the Funkhaus Nalepastrasse, where I have my studio in Berlin. They will be announcing the winner of the Funkhaus sculpture prize, having open studios, a curated exhibition of guest artists and an exhibition of the artists(including me) in the Atelier Project. Food, booze, DJs....beautiful river and Stalinist architecture.

I'll be showing some new paintings.

The party is on Thursday, June 3oth, at 6pm to 10pm.

St. Laurent vs. Berlin Wall

2011-06-18T10:28:00.004-04:00

Marianne Ackerman was in town a few weeks ago and we did a little interview at Neu! Bar.

Read the resulting article here.

This article reflects back to me that I am not coming back to Montreal any time soon. I live here now, making psychedelic vaginas.

Goodbye Galerie PUSH

2011-06-07T03:19:00.003-04:00

I am sad to see Galerie PUSH disappear. Working with Megan Bradley always made things seem so much more possible. Getting into trouble, trying to eek out how to keep going, feeling like family..... working with Galerie PUSH made "business as usual" take its proper place as the way to do things if everything else fails. I loved you best with a tiny Boris beer in my hand up in that weird space on St. Laurent.

Entropy always, but I feel a little chicken little as I watch good things end and power consolidate in the hands of fewer...but this too will change. Always more plurality in the art world, please.

Good work, Galerie PUSH. Things will never be as exciting as my solo show there in 2009. That is the high point so far. Good luck to Megan as she moves over to Parisian Laundry, they are lucky to have her.

In My Culture Food Was Not Very Important @ NEXT Chicago

2011-04-27T04:25:00.004-04:00

Skew Gallery is hanging my work at the NEXT fair in Chicago this weekend. Go get yer mind blown at booth 8B.

Go say howdy.

No dicks, no shit, no eggs…

2011-04-15T11:08:00.003-04:00

When the interviewer says ".....No dicks, no shit, no eggs…", you know it's going to be a good one.

My interview with Elvia Pyburn-Wilk for Berlin Art link can be found here.

Photo by Mike Milosh

Papeeee-er Dick, sorry Ohnze.

2011-04-12T02:44:00.003-04:00

PUSH Gallery decided to swoop in an unleash some ass-kicking at this year's PAPIER fair in Montreal. All works on paper....including some of the My Vagina Has A Second Name... series and a few collages.

Wish I could tip some bottles at the opening in Montreal, but I am too busy getting ready for my show in Berlin.

Tip some for me!

This Tiny Boy Just Left For NEXT Chicago

2011-04-11T04:10:00.002-04:00

Just sent my work to Skew Gallery for the NEXT Chicago art fair, running April 29th to May 2nd.

My first Chicago fair, so I sent a brand new piece with a skinny child playing a harmonica. Fucking bluesy as hell: In My Culture Food Was Not Very Important.

Just finished it last week.

Chicago makes me think of Wax Trax records and Bobby Conn. I wish I could go.

Last Summer I Will Build A 1:8 Scale Model Of Your Vagina @ Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg

2011-03-25T04:52:00.004-04:00

My first exhibition in Berlin:
Last Summer I Will Build A 1:8 Scale Model Of Your Vagina

Wil Murray

April 25th to April 29th, 2011

Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg

Berlin

Vernissage: April 25th, 8pm.

"Take great inspiration from Kurt Kren’s 31/75 Asylum and from Val Del Omar’s Fuego in Castilla.

Move to look at paintings hanging on walls, but also sit still to watch them slide across screens.

Enjoy a practice of making still, dimensional, constructed objects that will be inevitably flattened and put in motion. I refuse the ironic practices of making paintings for looking alone while they will still be photographed, broadcasted and watched. I refuse making paintings for watching alone while they will still have existed materially and looked at hanging on a wall. I can only make for both. I welcome the conceptual mess of making for watching and looking, welcome the confusion of a painting and it’s representation.

Pay as close attention in my practice to viewing source, angle, distance and duration as I do in my performance as an artist to volume, shine, cut and colour. So that my work in photograph is made impossible when standing in front of it looking and so that my work in person is made impossible when watching it from across the world."

Photo: Maxime Ballesteros

Help out The Blue Angel Lounge get to America

2011-03-07T03:07:00.003-05:00

There's not many bands I have seen play more than once in Berlin. The again, there's not many bands I would want to see more than once...but that's another post.

I've seen the Blue Angel Lounge three times.

They need to get to America to spread a little love in the new world and play some psych at the Austin psych festival. A great album produced by Anton Newcombe might get people's attention, but cold hard cash is needed to buy their steady tour diet of spray cheese and creme de menthe.

Help them out by pledging on Kickstarter and you'll get a little present from 8mm Musik too....

Interview with Travis Reynolds for the Calgary Herald

2011-02-26T09:42:00.004-05:00

Artist and expatriate Wil Murray returns to Calgary for the first time with his exhibition, I Hate Your Language You Hate Your Language.

Rife with meaning, Murray's conceptually laden, abstract sculptural paintings literally jump from the wall, providing a rich visual experience unfettered by the traditional, straight-ahead viewing angle. His works are assemblages of paint skins, photographs and three-dimensional constructs that fluctuate between being wildly excessive and subtly seductive.

Watch the video interview.

Review: I Hate Your Language Your Hate Your Language at Skew Gallery, Calgary

2011-02-23T04:46:00.005-05:00

"Murray’s conversation with the visualization of his work reflects upon the in congruency the experience presents in person from that of which is represented when photographed, but states he values equally the photographic experience and the flesh."

From Raina Enss' review of my exhibition I Hate Your Language, You Hate Your Language, up now at Skew Gallery in Calgary.

Little Black Book - The Drake Hotel, Toronto. Feb. 11th to Apr. 18th

2011-02-03T04:24:00.005-05:00

LITTLE BLACK BOOK

February 11 - April 18, 2011
The Drake Hotel
1150 Queen St. W. Toronto, Canada 001 416 531 5042

Drake’s mid-winter exhibition highlights a group of international artists who are on the edge of something great. These painters, sculptors and installation artists are all at different points in their careers – ranging from a recent grad to a museum veteran, all working in a wide range of media. Brought together loosely by a mutual fascination with pop-culture and a refined sense of craft, these artists have held our attention for sometime, consistently creating thought-provoking works that are at once on the cutting-edge of new directions, yet filled with familiar references that keep us coming back for more. So, this is it: a Little Black Book of artists and projects that have been so inspiring that, at one time, we would have been tempted to keep them secret!

The show opens with a vestibule installation by L.A-based Alise Spinella, a recent graduate of CalArts acclaimed Masters program. We’ve had an eye on Spinella since her early school days and have been struck by how her sculptures expand on the painterly space, much like the work of Jessica Stockholder, but in more ephemeral and seemingly spontaneous ways.

Three paintings fill the chalk board in the front lobby. These works by New York’s Scooter LaForge are a newer discovery, having participated in a recent show with Drake-alumni Shoplifter. A mix of Saturday-morning-cartoons and German Expressionism, these paintings are familiar yet totally fresh.

The back lobby features a painting by Australian Anthony Lister, a street artist who has been turning heads in the fine art community for the last few years with successful gallery shows and hybrid projects like the Hello Kitty Pop-Up Shop during Art Basel|Miami Beach. Lister has a knack for turning our most beloved pop-culture figures on their heads with a wry wit and deft brushwork.

Wil Murray combines the explosive painterly energy of Les Automatistes with vibrant patterns that are reminiscent of background details from vintage Loony Tunes cartoons. Here the painting spills over the confines of the canvas, filling the hotel stairs with vibrant abstract colour and the subtle suggestions of wallpaper patters, balcony railings and landscape details slipping across the screen on a Saturday morning.

The staircase to the Underground has been re-imagined with a new permanent installation by celebrated Canadian artist Ken Lum. Jim and Susan’s Motel illustrates Lum’s keen interest in the tension between the marketing of public messages and more private exchanges.

NYC’s Patrick Griffin shares Lum’s interest in messaging, replicating vintage lapel buttons. Polka dotting the walls, these buttons transcend the clichéd phrases and quaint sayings of the original, with a new preciousness, hand-crafted in sizes that stretch 2ft across.

Special thanks go to Show and Tell Gallery and Galerie Push who made this exhibition possible.

I Hate Your Language, You Hate Your Language @ Skew Gallery Feb. 10th - Mar. 12th, 2011

2011-02-01T04:46:00.004-05:00

I Hate Your Language, You Hate Your Language

Wil Murray

February 10th - March 12, 2011
Opening reception Feb. 10th : 6pm - 8pm (Artist In Attendance)

Skew Gallery: 1615 10th Avenue S.W. Calgary, AB Canada 001 403 244 4445

"You're looking at striated surfaces, drawn surfaces, old paint skins that have been peeled off, folded over on themselves, turned into a kind of sculptural element. It's a new kind of management of painted surfaces that are certainly a kind of Punk version of the bourgeois paintings" - Richard Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art describing Wil Murray's paintings on Bravo! Arts&Minds.

Skew Gallery is pleased to announce the return of Calgary's "hometown boy" Wil Murray to present a solo exhibition of his abstract sculptural paintings. Now based in Berlin Germany, Murray's interest in the radial view of his paintings propels the artist to create a cornucopia of layers in each painting, where paint itself serves as the subject of narrative. Murray assembles his paintings using acrylic paint-skins, brushwork, foam injections, and wooden appendages in an assortment of patterns and textures and forms. The resulting paintings are simultaneously garish in their excess, yet equally seductive in their unbridled vigor and skillful delivery; they are visceral both in the creation and the viewing.

See works from the exhibition here.

Photo: Maxime Ballesteros

If You Lived Free Or Died Here You Would Be Home Or Dead By Now

2011-01-31T04:07:00.003-05:00

If You Lived Free Or Died Here You Would Be Home Or Dead By Now, 2010

Acrylic, Photographs and Polyethylene Foam on Board

80" X 80" X 18"

Photo: Joe Dilworth

I Hear They're Building Some New Atrocity at 337 W. Pender

2011-01-18T04:44:00.003-05:00

Seven and a half years ago it travelled from ballroom to parking lot and I got to learn about how the inside of a wall smells when you burn off the outside.

I liked that it stayed a parking lot. Haven't seen the new building, but my hopes aren't "up".
But my having rented something for a few years doesn't license me to speak on it eternally....but maybe I'm just wishing in that sentence.

Maybe the greatest gift was a solid point in a narrative. That rings cynical, but I am really thankful for it.
Here's a new interview done with Ryan Quast for Beatroute Magazine in Vancouver - Wil Murray : Picking Up The Polka Dots

All I Want For Christmas Is Tear & Shear

2010-12-08T09:14:00.004-05:00

I love Christmas. I am all shits and giggles to actually have something I can refer to as a "Great Gift Idea". This is a first.

Prints of my work, as photographed by Maxime Ballesteros are available at Art + Culture Editions: http://aceditions.com/artists/wil-murray.

They ship around the world, too.

Much better than a puppy, and won't suffocate in the box!

(click card to enlarge)

Preview/Review at Diane Farris Gallery

2010-12-08T08:59:00.008-05:00

Review/Preview

December 2, 2010 – January 29, 2011

Holiday Reception: Saturday, December 11, 1 – 4 pm
We welcome you to join us for a cup of mulled wine and festive treats.

DIANE FARRIS GALLERY - VANCOUVER

VIEW EXHIBITION

Diane Farris Gallery celebrates the last weeks of 2010 with Review/Preview, a group exhibit highlighting artwork from our favourite moments of the past year and providing a glimpse of what 2011 will bring.

2010 was a colourful year at Diane Farris Gallery. In Sara Genn’s first solo show with the gallery, she explored white as a starting point for a gradual shift to colour. Review/Preview includes Genn’s recent vibrant works that further demonstrate her mastery of colour and texture. In June it was All About Blue, a group exhibition showcasing artworks where the colour blue dominated, represented here by Angela Grossmann’s drawings.

It was also a year of firsts. Not only did Diane Farris Gallery launch its blog, it held its first juried show, Twitter/Art+Social Media. Through this exhibition, which included over 40 artists from across Canada and abroad, the gallery examined how social media is affecting the practice of artists. Review/Preview includes works by gallery artists Fiona Ackerman and Wil Murray who both actively use social media and were also featured in our September show Pushing the Edge.

Amy Alice Thompson’s collages on vintage library cards and Justin Ogilvie’s Velazquez-inspired mixed media painting represent the work of two guestartists. As the gallery handles an increasing number of artworks from the secondary market, a spectacular painting by David Bierk and an Andy Warhol print of Mick Jagger will be featured.

New works by Shannon Belkin and Nick Lepard take animals as their subjects. Belkin’s paintings are reminiscent of romantic historical dog portraits while Lepard’s charcoal renderings of elephants confirm his mastery of the medium in these playful drawings.

Paintings from Gary Cody and Elzbieta Krawecka’s upcoming solo shows provide a preview of the exciting exhibits the gallery will offer in the new year. In Cody’s new paintings, he moves from still life compositions towards a greater degree of abstraction while retaining the photorealist style for which he is known. Krawecka’s new series of landscapes, Coming Home, brings together views of the West Coast and Ontario.

We welcome you to join us on Saturday, December 11th afternoon for a cup of mulled wine and festive treats.

*Please note: Diane Farris Gallery will close for the Christmas holidays.

Closed December. 24, 2010 to January 4, 2011.

Diane Farris Gallery, 1590 West 7th Avenue, Vancouver

Contact: Stacey White art@dianefarrisgallery.com

Tel: (604) 737-2629 Fax: (604) 737-2675

This exhibition can be viewed on-line at: www.dianefarrisgallery.com

Image: Wil Murray: My Vagina Has A First Name It's -N-, 2010. Acrylic on Photo. 6" X 8"

Upcoming Exhibitions: 2011

2010-11-21T06:47:00.006-05:00

February 10th - March 12, 2011: "I Hate Your Language, You Hate Your Language" Solo exhibition at Skew Gallery. Calgary, Canada.

May 2nd - 6th: Schattenkabinett Solo Exhibition at Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg. Berlin, Germany.

August 29th - September 23rd: Softcore Hard Edge at East and Peggy Phelps Galleries, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California

Fall 2010: Solo Exhibition at Galerie Push. Montreal, Canada

Why I Don't Speak Any Language Besides The Ones I Do.

2010-11-10T03:58:00.004-05:00

I am reading Malcom Lowry's "Under The Volcano". I don't speak spanish. I don't understand the Spanish-language passages that come ever page or so except as formal stand-ins for my own confusion. Holes in the text. Some part of the text that feels instead of speaks.

I value my confusion. It stretches time because it always ends. Maybe it is similar to what is horror vs. what is terror. Confusion is horrifying, not terrorizing.

I watched Bertolucci's "The Conformist" the other night, dubbed in English. I forgot that a scene at a dance for the blind isn't dubbed, they speak Italian for the whole scene. I love that film and don't know if there's something wrong with my copy. I watched it this time with my girlfriend and it felt good to say "Don't worry, this ends....I think." to ensure someone things had not gone wrong, that there would be a return. This was a gap, not an end.

I am not often confused. A few years ago I went to an exhibition that a friend curated in Vancouver. There was a piece in the show that consisted of some text written on the wall that read something like "Every day I will leave this point an walk until I am lost..." and then something about what they would do then. I couldn't imagine how far I would have to walk before I was really lost. I have a pretty good sense of direction and a low threshold for alarm at being lost. If I were that artist, I don't think I would make it back in time the next day to get lost again.

My Guide To The Toronto Art Fair

2010-10-27T05:54:00.002-04:00

Triumph Of The Theraupeutic at Patrick Mikhail Gallery

2010-10-14T05:18:00.002-04:00

Click on the image to see it larger.

New Prints at Art + Culture Editions

2010-10-06T04:40:00.003-04:00

Art + Culture Editions has two editions of my work available by order online. A straight up print of my work is totally ridiculous, so for these I had Maxime Ballesteros photograph some paintings at my Berlin studio. I left him alone in an other room, he came back to get a hammer and some string.
His photos are incredibly frank and I am so glad he lent his eye to a different representation of my work than the one with the fake tits shadow and corrected hair colour and brown eye reduction.
The reproduction of "Hot Dog Day Chien Chaude Savvy To Rename Himself AA Aardvark" brings out it's sleaziness and dripping lustiness. Maxime's photo of "Call Me Anything Just Don't Call Me Late For Dinner or Alive And Well" is the only image I have seen that captures the quiet, airy stillness of my studio where the paintings exist pricipally as objects.
The prints are gorgeous, you can see and purchase them here. Nice and slick.

More of this type of representation to come, nice to know really good photographers.

Go see Maxime Ballesteros' work too, he's got some photos in Saccharine at The Grimmuseum in Berlin

Edition....

2010-09-27T03:53:00.002-04:00

Coming soon! An edition with Art+Design Editions.
Maxime Ballesteros came down a few weeks ago and photographed my work(image above from the same series). The edition will be two prints of my work as photographed by Maxime.
I told him to photograph them as he wanted. He came by the studio and got to work, came into the room I was working in to ask for a hammer and some string, and disappeared again.
It feels good to see what is revealed by images outside a painting's official portrait.
More and more my work is built to goose lookers in front of the painting and watchers looking at photos...to separate and lift those two experiences.
More collaborations like this coming.

Pushing The Edge at Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver

2010-09-01T04:20:00.005-04:00

I will edging all over Western Canada this fall, or at least my work will be. In this show will be a pretty interesting collection of my work alongside Nick Lepard and Fiona Ackerman. Two older works that showed in Vancouver in 2006, one piece from 2008 and a series of 6 small paintings on photo from last month called "My Vagina Has A First Name It's J-O-A-N-N-A". See and read more here.

Pushing The Edge
September 2nd to October 2nd, 2010
Opening: September 9th, 6pm to 8pm

Diane Farris Gallery
1590 W. 7th Avenue
Vancouver, Canada
(604) 737-2629
art@dianefarrisgallery.com

Image: My Vagina Has A First Name It's -N-, 2010. 6" X 8" Acrylic on Photo Collage.
Courtesy Diane Farris Gallery. Photo by Joe Dilworth

Happy Hour With Wil Murray

2010-08-30T05:55:00.003-04:00

On September 15th, I answer all your burning questions.
From anyone, on any subject....
In English, French or broken German...
I drink beer for courage, draw your questions from a hat and answer them one by one.

Please forward this to your pals, enemies, lovers, students and mothers.
Send your questions and RSVP here.

Upcoming Exhibitions: Soft Core/ Hard Edge

2010-08-12T06:07:00.006-04:00

I will be traveling to my hometown to drink beers at the opening of this exhibit(Sept. 10th), to sex-up a panel discussion(Sept. 14th) and hold a happy hour artist talk(Sept. 15th). More info on all that soon. There's a book coming out with the show as well.

softcore/ HARD EDGE
Calgary: September 10th, 2010 to January 22nd, 2011
Los Angeles: August 29th to September 23rd, 2011

Phillip Argent, Tim Bavington, Billy Al Bengston, Karl Benjamin, Ingrid Calame, Alex Caldwell , Eric Cameron, Dave and Jenn, John Eisler, Bradley Harms, Harry Kiyooka, Allison Miller, Lee Mullican, Mark Mullin, Wil Murray, Candace Nycz, Monique Prieto, Laurel Smith

Curated by Marianne Elder & David Pagel

Art Gallery of Calgary
117 8 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB Canada
(403) 237-6637

Image: If You Wax It And Tan It The Scars Are Sure To Shine Brightly Tonight, 2010
Acrylic & Polyethylene Foam on Board, 83.5" X 49" X 8" Courtesy: Skew Gallery, Calgary

Extreme Painting: My work at Rene Blouin

2010-05-30T08:17:00.004-04:00

I will be showing work at Galerie René Blouin in the multi-venue summer exhibition in Montreal called Extreme Painting July 10th to August 21st.
My work will hang alongside Kim Dorland and Chris Kline.
Keep posted for summer shows in Vancouver and Calgary.

New Painting: She Broadcasts Love At A Six Hour Distance...

2010-05-04T12:24:00.000-04:00

She Broadcasts Love At A Six Hour Distance So I Can Stop Telling Time on TV Clocks, 2010
85" X 63" X 7". Acrylic On Board.
Photo by Yannick Grandmont

Click image to see larger version

Skew Gallery - Calgary, Canada

2010-05-03T07:56:00.005-04:00

I am very pleased to announce that I will be represented by Skew Gallery in my hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Look for my work in an exhibition there this summer presented as part of the Sled Island Music Festival.

Image: If You Wax It And Tan It The Scars Are Sure To Shine Brightly Tonight, 2010. 83.5 X 49 X 8 inches. Acrylic & Polyethylene Foam On Boar. Photo by Yannick Grandmont

Magenta TV's profile

2010-03-12T18:47:00.002-05:00

Nadia Moss @ Galerie PUSH Opening March 18th

2010-03-08T21:21:00.002-05:00

The show I am most excited to see before leaving Montreal:
Nadia Moss
Still river still leaving
18 mars 25 avril 2010

VERNISSAGE
JEUDI 18 mars 2010 18H - 21H

Les dessins à l’encre ainsi que les peintures par Nadia Moss rassemblent une variété d’êtres flottant sur un espace indéfini et qui semblent se mouvoir sur la surface plane de paysages artificiels. Insufflant le geste à ses figures Moss crée des êtres ambigus qui semblent entretenir simultanément une dépendance et un ressentiment à l’égard du groupe qui les définit. Des motifs gravés ornent des personnages et indiquent leur expérience ou l’inéluctable passage du temps menant à la mort. Les scénarios dépeints évoquent un état de latence, de stagnation, un « lieu » à mi-chemin de tout. Actifs, bien que confinés aux marges de la page de l’artiste, les figures semblent se mouvoir avec résolution dans une avancée qui ne mène nulle part d’autre qu’au même endroit.

**NOUVELLE ADRESSE DÈS LE 15 MARS 2010: 372 SAINTE-CATHERINE OUEST / SUITE 425 / H3B 1A4**

GALERIE PUSH 5264 SAINT LAURENT / MONTRÉAL QC canada /
514 544-9079 / INFO@GALERIEPUSH.COM
GALERIEPUSH.COM

Culture Hall Page

2010-03-01T21:01:00.005-05:00

I've been invited to set up a page with Culture Hall, a New York based site presenting artist pages and monthly curated features. See it here.
From their page:
"Culturehall is a curated online resource for contemporary art where selected artists can share their work with curators, gallerists, collectors and other artists. We provide free artist portfolios with an easy to use set of web-based tools to make presenting art online simple and efficient. Our community of artists consists primarily of MFA graduates, arts professionals and teaching artists. Membership is available by invitation"

Dick Dack Toe

2010-02-27T11:00:00.004-05:00

What I make is to painting what Star Trek's 3-dimensional chess game is to chess.
No, what I make is to painting what the original Windows 3-D Tic Tac Toe was to on-paper Tic Tac Toe when I first booted up my Dad's new computer in 1993.
It also has something to with Philip K. Dick and taking speed....how if you go fast enough you can make time's thread dimensional and move around it. Time outside of time. Making sure all the information is there by moving so that all the information can be read by moving.
Looking as opposed to watching

Some recent images: Work at The Studio

2010-01-28T06:59:00.004-05:00

January is the mos productive month of the year, and my time away from the studio allowed a few things to ferment. More construction, more ambitious composition and painting curtains.

:: WEB-TÉLÉ MANGE TA VILLE :: Episode Pop naïf

2010-01-25T07:19:00.004-05:00

When you devoted your night to whisky, woke hung over in Montreal and spent your morning on Black Metal and couldn't find a rzor sharp enough to shave, the video looks something like this:
:: WEB-TÉLÉ MANGE TA VILLE :: Episode Pop naïf

If you want to skip the bit on Normand Braitwaithe and just see me stand behind the eternally enthusiastic/quirky-without-drugs Catherine Pogonat click here.

Posted using ShareThis

"Best Of The Season" at Patrick Mikhail Gallery Opening Friday, December 11th

2009-12-09T05:27:00.003-05:00

Click on image for larger version.

"Silver" exhibition Opening at Diane Farris Tonight. New collages from Berlin.

2009-12-03T09:37:00.002-05:00

Silver
December 3 – 23
Artist Reception: December 3, 2009, 6 – 8 pm

Diane Farris Gallery ends 2009 with a lot to celebrate. In its 25th Anniversary year, the gallery has the same energy that first made it an exciting new art venue in 1984. The gallery continues the tradition of introducing new artists to Vancouver while featuring the best of those who have been part of its cast since the beginning. Silver presents both large and small-scale artworks by gallery artists Shannon Belkin, Dale Chihuly, Judith Currelly, John Dennison, Angela Grossmann, Kathryn Jacobi, Nick Lepard and Wil Murray.

Silver also welcomes two new sculptors to the gallery: internationally-acclaimed New York artist Ilan Averbuch and Seattle-based sculptor Joseph McDonnell. Ilan Averbuch is well-known for massive outdoor pieces composed of granite, stone, lead and wood beams. They are truly fantastic in nature and in scope. Two drawings in this exhibit demonstrate his mastery of spatial balance as well as his playful, ironic nature. In the courtyard, two major works by Seattle artist Joseph McDonnell introduce his dramatic, almost Cubist sculptures of metal and granite. Their pit-marked, weathered surfaces and teetering forms capture a sense of ancient, primordial symbols and lost civilizations.

New paintings by Shannon Belkin, Judith Currelly and Angela Grossmann are featured along with works on paper by Wil Murray, Nick Lepard, Kathryn Jacobi and John Dennison. Murray’s popular collages juxtapose images from National Geographic magazines with photographs of his paintings in maquette-like compositions. Kathryn Jacobi shows prints from her Baby series, while Nick Lepard presents charcoal drawings done as studies for his large oil portraits. Currelly’s large-scale work on wood panel depicts a polar bear reigning over a frozen landscape. At the feminine extreme of the exhibit, Vancouver painter Shannon Belkin has created a lovely soft study of dogs on a plush pink pillow.

My work at Aqua Wynwood Miami

2009-11-21T14:43:00.005-05:00

I am pleased to announce that I will be showing some small work with the Michael Gibson Gallery at the Aqua Wynwood art fair during Art Basel Miami Beach. You can find my collages at Booth # 5, December 3rd-6th.

Twice As Much Faggot, Twice as Much Drugs

2009-11-03T03:19:00.005-05:00

Settling into Berlin nicely after a very good, very hazy art fair in Toronto.
My second arrival here has been even more spectacular than the last. It rains here, but I've not felt a drop.
I stopped checking the weather or the date.
The painting pictured is very big. You can click on the photo and see it bigger. It was exhibited at Art Toronto and in my show at Galerie PUSH. I can never remember it's proper name: Them Faggot Drug Them New Faggot Standard Breasts Shape Drug(144" X 89" X 14" Acrylic & Polyethylene Foam On Board, 2009).
Photo by Yannick Grandmont

One of The Best Nights Of My Life

2009-09-17T20:40:00.004-04:00

From the night of the vernissage for "We Pet Your Cat To Death?" at Galerie PUSH. A group shot with some of my favourite folks in the world.
L to R: Marie Brassard, Dana Gingras, Justin Evans, Wil Murray, Olivier Borxeix

Photo by Javiera Ovalle

"Microcosm" at Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa

2009-09-16T17:49:00.004-04:00

Microcosm:

As we enter a new age of reason where science and technology gain greater importance there appears to be a revival of inquiry into traditional spirituality. We have begun to question our place in the universe and how it relates to the belief systems we have put so much faith into. Faced with this dichotomy, how do we deal with this issue that human beings are a perfect reflection of their creator? Do we still exist as a perfect microcosm of the universe or has this changed?

September 23rd-October 20th

Patrick Mikhail Gallery

Sam & Ralph, a lingering question about employment

2009-09-13T22:35:00.004-04:00

In "Don't Give Up The Sheep", unlike all of the other Sam& Ralph episodes in which he is employed by the same company as Ralph(they punch into the same clock), Sam seems to be independently contracted by a third party, a predator temping agency or is self-employed as a coyote.
It is safe to assume then that between 1942 and 1943, whatever company Ralph worked for bought out Sam, or his employer or hired him on as full time labour.

We Pet Your Cat To Death? at Galerie Push September 10-October 11

2009-08-10T15:42:00.004-04:00

we pet your cat to death?
10 septembre 11 octobre 2009

VERNISSAGE
JEUDI 10 septembre 2009 19H - 22H

Wil Murray’s explosive and seductive work presents paint as subject in We Pet Your Cat to Death?. Murray shoots paint up onto a pedestal of foamy stability while hanging it off to experience three dimensional spaces away from the surface that somehow holds it all together. He constructs locations for paint to occupy, making it stand up and stand out, carefully moulding, pouring, lifting, folding and intertwining it. Revelling in the act of assembling a painting, Wil Murray humanizes his subject and makes it bleed and ooze and cry and scream.

Wil Murray was born in Calgary in 1978; he studied painting at the Alberta Collage of Art and Design and has lived in Montreal since 2004. In September 2008, Murray received an honourable mention in the 10th annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition (the largest of its kind in Canada) for his painting, Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac. Murray’s work was chosen for publication in Carte Blanche, Vol. 2: Painting, released in 2008, and his work will be presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in November 2009, for ESSE Magazine’s 25 year anniversary auction. Wil Murray is represented by the Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver and Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Ottawa. Wil Murray’s We Pet Your Cat to Death? is proudly presented at Galerie PUSH from September 10 until October 11, 2009 courtesy of Patrick Mikhail Gallery.
Texte en francais

GALERIE PUSH 5264 SAINT LAURENT / MONTRÉAL QC canada /
514 544-9079 / INFO@GALERIEPUSH.COM
GALERIEPUSH.COM

Wil Murray Baby Ghost from the 1900s Says Beat it With Your Chain, 2009, acrylique et mousse polypropylene sur panneau
73’’ x 60’’x8''
© Wil Murray, 2009

New Painting: If They Bottled Sex With The Curator...

2009-07-31T06:27:00.007-04:00

If They Bottled Sex With The Curator I Would Buy It But Spill It On The Way Home, 2009
Acrylic & Foam On Board, 49" X 59" X 7"

To be sold at ESSE magazine's 25th anniversary auction November 11th at Musee De Beaux Arts in Montreal.

Camera Fault

2009-07-19T10:59:00.002-04:00

Decorating walls...at the studio: The albatros and the unusable

2009-07-04T21:03:00.003-04:00

If you paint it on the wall, it is very hard to move to the gallery. If you coat sprayfoam in green paint and glitter, you'll wind up with an object usable only as an example of going too far(lucky charms brain).

Decorating walls...at the studio: Mixed bag above the paint table

2009-07-04T20:58:00.003-04:00

photobooth image of Julia, mampe elephant, scared-child brand candy wrapper, phtoshopped painting images, under-the-sea national geographic clipping

Decorating walls...at the studio: My art-crush pinups

2009-07-04T20:56:00.002-04:00

Shary Boyle lopped out of a magazine

Decorating walls...at the studio: Colour Tests

2009-07-04T20:55:00.002-04:00

Decorating walls...at the studio: New Painting Titles, scrawled

2009-07-04T20:46:00.002-04:00

Decorating walls...at the studio: Introduction

2009-07-04T20:37:00.002-04:00

When I used to have an apartment, I hated putting things on the walls. Now that I don't I enjoy that someone else has. I can't figure out what I would hang on my own walls. I don't really ever want something in a way that would mean toting it home and hanging in on my wall.
I've been in my studio over five years now. I have some things on the wall, and I took some photos today of what, over five years,has made it's way to the wall and stayed....beyond paintings, of course.

ESSE Magazine 25th Anniversary Auction

2009-07-02T11:16:00.003-04:00

"If They Bottled Sex With The Curator I Would Buy It But Spill It On The Way Home"(pictured above) will be featured in ESSE magazine 's 25th anniversary auction this fall. Happening November 11th, at the Musee Des Beaux Arts in Montreal. This piece will also be exhibited in my show at Galerie PUSH in September.

Details: If They Bottled Sex With The Curator I Would Buy It But Spill It On The Way Home. Acrylic & Foam on Board. 49" X 59" X 7" (click on image fore larger version)

Interview with Megan Bradley of Galerie PUSH

2009-05-27T21:22:00.003-04:00

Axis posted an interview called

Do we still need to bother about feminism?

Oh, it's perfect that large!
The interview included Megan Bradley, the director of Galerie PUSH here in Montreal.
I am currently working on my exhibition for the gallery, that will open the 10th of September. Tentatively called "We Pet Your Cat To Death?", and exhibition text is being written by Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf.

I kept this under an ill-fitting hat

2009-04-23T17:43:00.003-04:00

In honour of my show opening tonight, I'll reveal the daytime's Clark Kent to the nightime's Superman. I was a VICE Magazine "Do". Somehow this just makes me daydream of Snagglepuss and remember that Nu Pogodi is my only style hero left. Gravy Boat Bandit indeed.

This Haunted House Is Not A Haunted Home

2009-04-14T15:38:00.005-04:00

This Haunted House Is Not A Haunted Home:

New Works by Wil Murray

April 23rd to May 9th, 2009
Opening Reception April 23rd 6pm-8pm

Diane Farris Gallery
1590 W. 7th Avenue
Vancouver, Canada
V6J 1S2
tel (604) 737-2629

Exhibition Preview

Exhibition Statement:

“Who am I? If this once I were to rely on a proverb, then perhaps everything would amount to knowing whom I 'haunt.' I must admit that this last word is misleading, tending to establish between certain beings and myself relations that are stranger, more disturbing than I intended. Such a word means much more than it says, makes me, still alive, play a ghostly part, evidently referring to what I must have ceased to be in order to be who I am”

From Nadja, Andre Breton

I am a haunted house painter.
One night I heard from my writer friend a description of our bodies as houses, haunted by ghosts. This image stuck with me, and became parasite or symbiont to my memory of Breton’s lines. So I sang "There's A Ghost In My House" by R. Dean Taylor over and over and thought: The studio door disembodies. It invites visitation.
My own seduction by photography haunts me. Photographs of my paintings linger in me like a portrait of a lover or of myself. I am captivated by them, gazing as if I could see around or past the subject, into its hands or mouth, or into shadows. Or maybe just a little further up its leg, down its blouse. Into a privately known place that the photographic portrait will not show. What was past my eyes. What turned me on and sent me to the photo in the first place.
For this exhibition I’ve made dripping, tumescent, over-stimulating paintings that at first horrify away from themselves, toward the safe seduction of their portrait. But this printed flatness bores nearly as quickly as it is consumed, and once desirous of girth, weight and threat, one is drawn back to the painting in a lather - calm and collected after privately completing a seduction/consumption narrative, but quietly haunted by a relationship to the pornographic likeness - to be horrified, delighted and titillated again.
The paintings are named for anonymous ghosts. Titles function as clues to the forms taken by my spectral companions that just hung there as I paced from painting to portrait and back again.
I wish for paintings that send a viewer to flat portraits to swoon as I had, and to wish, as I did, for a return to the discomfort of their own grinning movements with the very real painting. I wish to share my own queezy seduction by ghosts by becoming myself a spectral seducer to others.
I wish to haunt and be haunted and wish again to haunt back.

* image shown: "February Is An Annual Race To The Bottom Aroun Here" Mixed Media Collage, 7" X 12", 2009(click image for larger version)

Why I Don't Ride A Bicycle

2009-03-10T12:54:00.003-04:00

The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding on iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them at you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycles.

-The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien

New Painting: What The Dents In Your Head Can Tell Us

2009-03-01T13:04:00.003-05:00

(click image to see larger version)

What The Dents In Your Head Can Tell Us, 2009
52" X 43" X 6", Acrylic & Foam On Board

New Painting: "Cathode Ray Cure For The Lust-Bent Hangover"

2009-03-01T12:43:00.003-05:00

(click image to see larger version)

Cathode Ray Cure For The Lust-Bent Hangover, 2009
62" X 53" X 9", Acrylic & Foam On Board

I'm only six years older than the gallery that represents me

2008-11-26T12:17:00.008-05:00

I'll have some work in the group exhibition going up at the Diane Farris Gallery next week. In celebration of their 25th anniversary, the list of other artists is pretty awesome. Here's the copy:

Celebrating 25!
December 4, 2008– January 24, 2009
Opening reception: December 6, 2008, 2 - 4pm

Celebrating 25! is a milestone exhibition launching Diane Farris Gallery’s 25th year. It provides viewers with a survey of the gallery’s artists since its inception, starting with new works by Alan Wood, Angela Grossmann, Attila Richard Lukacs, Graham Gillmore, and Vicky Marshall, including new pieces by Michael Dennis, Judith Currelly, and Gu Xiong, and presenting paintings by rising artists Jesse Garbe, Wil Murray and Nick Lepard.

From its early Gastown days, exhibitions that featured such prominent Canadian artists as Gershon Iskowitz, Michael Snow, David Bierk and Jeffrey Spalding, were alternated with those by emerging artists – many of whom were still students at Emily Carr – such as the eight young artists who made up the landmark Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition by Scott Watson: “The Young Romantics” and the collective “Futura Bold”--- Grossmann, Gillmore, Lukacs and Root.

Diane Farris Gallery continues to play an important role in the Vancouver arts scene and internationally. The gallery wishes to thank all of the artists who have exhibited with them over the years and contributed to making Diane Farris Gallery a vibrant part of Canada’s visual arts community.

Globanmale Article

2008-11-22T15:34:00.002-05:00

"At the Power Plant, the atmosphere is similarly promotional, but that's okay. The RBC Painting Competition has no pretensions to be otherwise. I found some great new (to me) artists here, including a second painting by Wil Murray (he's also in the MoCCA show) - a riotous, brilliantly coloured disembowelment of the painting surface aptly titled Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac; the deftly asymmetrical hyperrealist painting of a shoe box by Lorenzo Pepito; and a rambunctious abstraction by Jeanie Riddle (who works as the director of Parisian Laundry in Montreal when she isn't hitting it out of the park in her studio): a giant, apparently friendly black blob consuming a dazzling canary-yellow pictorial field."

From Sarah Milroy's article in the Review section of the Globe and Mail today. Read the whole article here.

Security to aisle four. The Magenta Opening at MOCCA

2008-11-18T13:10:00.003-05:00

Photo by Tim at BlogTO

See, that's my painting on the right(it's called "Broadcast TV's Gape Shot Or A Sad End To A Proud Life") at the Magenta Carte Blanche Vol. 2: Painting exhibition. That bit hanging is a paint skin, hung off a piece of foam. While securely attached at one end, it hangs free at the other.
Now imagine that space (MOCCA) with around 500 people in it. There were so many people there on Saturday at the opening. I'm shit for gauging crowds, but someone said 500, so I'll believe them.
There were so many people that everyone was getting awfully close to the work, with their back to it, drinking. They had to post a security guard next to my work, shooing people away from it so that they didn't knock bits off. I was delighted. My work had a bodyguard for the night.
That was a very good opening.
Go see the show, it is best show of Canadian painting I've ever seen, and Maryann Camilleri did a brilliant job with the book too.

"Why I Am Not A Painter" at Patrick Mikhail Gallery Opening November 21st

2008-11-18T12:28:00.005-05:00

Why I Am Not A Painter
Wil Murray

November 19th to December 16th
Patrick Mikhail Gallery
2401 Bank Street Ottawa, ON

Opening Reception November 21st, 5:30pm - 9:00pm
(click on image above to view e-invite)

After being named runner-up by the Governor General in the 2008 RBC Painting Competition. After having work in both the Magenta Foundation's Carte Blanche Vol.2: Painting book and exhibition. After curating Painting: Thick and Thin at the Glenbow and the Illingworth Kerr. After spending much of the year painting, I am presenting my solo exhibition of new work, "Why I Am Not A Painter", at the Patrick Mikhail Gallery.
I've named this solo exhibition after Frank O'Hara's poem(below). I've named many of the paintings after really vulgar little-boy grafitti, any Foghorn Leghorn cartoons that feature the weasel, and my family lineage. I've made a whole clan around "Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac", complete with dripping excretions, paint stamens, testicles and falsies. I've delicately folded paint skins like fabric and forced acrylic paint to grow in glazes and brush strokes. This year I’ve thought "That’ll photograph well" while painting and then gone blind.

Why I Am Not a Painter

I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,

for instance, Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
"Sit down and have a drink" he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. "You have SARDINES in it."
"Yes, it needed something there."
"Oh." I go and the days go by
and I drop in again. The painting
is going on, and I go, and the days
go by. I drop in. The painting is
finished. "Where's SARDINES?"
All that's left is just
letters, "It was too much," Mike says.

But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven't mentioned
orange yet. It's twelve poems, I call
it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery
I see Mike's painting, called SARDINES.

(1971)

Magenta Exhibition In Toronto

2008-11-10T18:01:00.005-05:00

I'm headed down to Toronto tomorrow for the week. A few more RBC events, a little repair to a painting, but mostly for the launch of the Magenta Foundation's Carte Blanche Vol. 2: Painting book on the 15th of November.
Hope to see you there.
Click on the image above for the e-invite.

New Painting: Super Special Chat Twenty Dollars

2008-11-06T21:40:00.004-05:00

Super Special Chat Twenty Dollars, 2008
Acrylic & Foam on Board, 35" X 47"

New Painting: Terror Bred His Sardonicism....

2008-10-23T10:41:00.002-04:00

Terror Bred His Sardonicism That Weasel Sees Him As Food, 2008
Acrylic & Foam on Board, 48" X 54"

In the lead up to my November show "Why I Am Not A Painter" at the Patrick Mikhail Gallery, I will be posting images of a few of the paintings I've completed this year.
Yes, the title refers to Foghorn Leghorn, my ongoing obsession. Click on the image for a larger version.

Curtis Santiago's Reverse Homesteading

2008-10-21T21:36:00.005-04:00

I met Curtis Santiago last summer in Calgary at the Sled Island Festival. He played at set at the closing party, and even through my five day hangover haze, I remembered his story about Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun taking him on as an an apprentice in part because of his colourful shoes. He pulled a ring case from his pocket and showed me a little bit of what he'd done on the inside. It didn't knock my block off, but the images he sent me today sure did. Lawrence must have seen a lot in those shoes.
Curtis has pulled up roots from Vancouver and re-located to Toronto, where I'm sure, judging by his really nice paintings, he'll do just fine.
Click on the images for larger versions.

Art Fair Blues, Governor General Cheers, Toronto

2008-10-06T12:37:00.007-04:00

Hey look, it's Governor General Michaelle Jean checking out Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac at the National Gallery of Canada.
I just got back from Toronto last night. A little broken from the weekend's activities.
I travelled there for the 2008 Toronto International Art Fair. I left there pretty hollowed out.
The opening night gala was great with it's free booze and chatting with other artists, but the rest of the time is was a little heartbreaking to be there. Rarely do I feel extraneous when my work is hanging somewhere, but the fair has little to offer artists past the opening night. The fair is mostly for collectors and gallerists.
Wait, the fair's still on today, go see my work at Booth 1020 before it closes!
Other things I did in Toronto were fantastic. Drunken after-party and animated cab rides with John Eisler, dinner and art fairing with my Mom, recording an episode with Joel and Jenn for Squidpod, times spent with the stripey-jacketed dudes from the MOCCA, and free beer and brewery tour with Wayne Baerwaldt, Matt Masters, Terrence Houle and the boys in the band.
I'll be back in Toronto in November to open the Magenta show and see everyone I missed this time.

Pas Chic Chic. New.

2008-10-01T21:12:00.008-04:00

Pas Chic Chic's new site is up and working with videos, every song of all their records, photos and pretty great video backgrounds of each of the members.
My good friend Gavin John Sheehan is now in the band, and will be making his debut with them on stage this Thursday at Pop Montreal. They will also be touring a bit to Ottawa and Toronto, and then to Europe.
I don't generally like new music, Pas Chic Chic is one of the only bands I think are interesting. Gavin is one of the artists I respect the most, and is a huge part of why I work the way I do.
Having him in this band is like gravy on the icing.

Whaddaya Mean There's No Ferris Wheel?

2008-10-01T16:02:00.005-04:00

I'm off to the 2008 Toronto Art Fair tomorrow. I will eat cotton candy and attend galas. I will ride the Tilta-Whirl and try out my new status as "vedette".
If you're going too, you can find my work in Booth 1020 - Patrick Mikhail Gallery, and me lurking somewhere around the drinks table.

These days, if I wear my best wig, I look like this. Introduce yourself.

RBC Headline Thief! Me!

2008-09-28T15:16:00.003-04:00

As you may have already heard, I was named a runner-up in the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition last week.
There's too much to tell, but my favourite article, or at least headline, so far can be found here:
The Second-Runner Up Takes The Prize For Most Absurdly Named Painting
Next stop, the Toronto Art Fair next weekend.

Photo by Ashley Bilodeau

National Post Slide Show

2008-09-23T16:40:00.005-04:00

While I can't think of a better option to "tinkly piano music", the tinkly piano music in this slideshow on the RBC Painting Competition Finalists makes me laugh out loud....well at least during my part, in which I describe the strip club I got the title from and how I like Looney Tunes a lot.
Karen Hawthorne and me had a fine time doing the interview, and I think it shows.....Drew Simpson cataloging the contents of his painting is pretty amazing.
But I keep thinking a soft voice will start calmly discussing some terrible disease, then my weird telephone recorded voice cuts through and I'm in stitches.
Watch it here.

PS. The kick ass artist photo at the beginning is by Ashley Bilodeau.

Projet Orignal

2008-09-21T19:06:00.003-04:00

My partner, Ashley Bilodeau, has decide to leave the world of buy mediocre quality for nothing from the third world and re-sell at inflated prices to people who don't need anymore clothes fashion wholesaling to start her own company called Moose Project making by hand and selling mobiles, pillows and all kinds of crafts.
Look for Mooses, lots of Mooses...and the giant horse I've been mistaking for a cat all weekend.
You can check out her blog here: Moose Project

New Artist Statement

2008-09-14T14:38:00.003-04:00

New Artist Statement

"Painting: Thick and Thin examines Calgary's art culture"

2008-09-07T13:26:00.003-04:00

The Gauntlet, the University of Calgary's newspaper(not the video game), has published an article by Daniel Pagan on Painting: Thick and Thin.
Read it here.

The full interview from August 29th/08:
Daniel Pagan: In some posts on your blog, you talked about how you want to make it clear that you could just as easily be an artist in the exhibition as the curator regarding the Thick & Thin exhibition. So basically, how does it feel being a curator of this exhibition and how does that work contrasts and is alike being an artist? You have to make plans and set up an exhibition of various artists' artworks compared to working on your own personal artwork with your own style.
Wil Murray: It's night and day. I'm not sure which is which.
Working on my own work, and working on my own exhibitions blend seamlessly. From building the supports and making the paintings, to titling the exhibition and attending the opening, an unbroken line exists.
Curating, on the other hand feels like stepping in halfway through, at the point where the paintings are made, and in many cases already shown or owned.
Keep in mind, this is my first experience curating and comparisons to my own shows are inevitable.
This exhibition is the only curatorial project I've ever had in mind, due in no small part to the fact that I could be included in the exhibition just as easily if someone else were doing the curating.
There's a Salman Rushdie essay where he states that you must first learn to tell your own story before you can tell any other. While not a huge fan of his work, I was reminded of that essay a lot over the past months.
I think that all painters look from their own practice outward, so this exhibition was fascinating to me because of some of the commonalities in experience between all of the artists and my own practice. It presented an opportunity not just to exhibit the work of other artists close to me, but to pose some questions about geography, schooling, and their lasting effects on the practices of artists involved and my own too.
I halted my own academic career years ago and have had to find venues for research elsewhere, and embarking on this project is part of that. The most interesting part has been having my own ideas about the themes in the exhibition re-directed by eight different voices.

DP: Being a curator, how does the work at Glenbow Museum compares to SI08: Art + Design Festival, when you put up the Thick & Thin exhibition at the Festival? The Glenbow Museum is a permanent location with its own rules and ideas of what an exhibition should be like, compared to Sled Festival which occurs for a few weeks in one month per a year.
WM: The year long process of getting this show together was a strange one, with many twists to the storyline.
The festival allowed a focus on the exhibition as more of an event, the Glenbow portion allowed a more steady and longer dispersal.
Both shows are a part of the Sled Island Arts portion of the festival. The festival atmosphere in June was very nice, as it brought a lot of artists from all over and music fans to the work in a very short period of time. But, as can happen with festivals, beyond the opening I don't know how much people saw the show when it was at the IKG. I don't lament that, and understand that festivals function in a series of events and I focused on our event, the opening, as much as possible and it worked marvelously with my own show with Justin Evans and other shows by Shary Boyle, Paulo Whitaker, and Terrence Koh.
The Glenbow was a nice change from that. Ryan presented a different piece which needs a longer show, and we focused on making the show one that could see people through multiple visits and viewings. I like the more intimate space of the Glenbow and the museum's history as Calgary's principle museum. It lends some interesting contrast to the themes of the exhibit, and speaks to a very different audience.
The two are different, not many of my Glenbow meetings were had over ten pints at the Ship, but Art has a really nice position in being able to travel very different spaces and still speak loudly. And I'm blessed to have work in the show that speaks very loudly indeed.

DP: This question is more from my curiosity and thoughts that occurred while I did my research on the Painting: Thick and Thin exhibition. What I noticed is how all of the painters and artists who have their paintings up in the Thick & Thin exhibition are all graduates of ACAD and how you know them all and this network. So my apology if my question's not clear enough, but would you say that there is more to the Thick & Thin exhibition themes than just an exhibition of ACAD grads getting together, like a conversation in painting?
WM: Your question brings up what is most interesting to me about curating. I didn't even consider that all the artists in the show attended ACAD when I asked them. While I know that art making in Calgary is equally present outside of that school, my own position in reading art from Calgary is heavily weighted towards ACAD, as that is what I passed through. I had no desire to do a sober assessment of painting in Calgary, nor claim to have found a regional style. I took a very good opportunity to exhibit the artists who've affected me the most. In that, I guess I am still more artist than curator.
Especially pertinent, given that your article will appear in the newspaper of the U of C, with it's own fine arts department.
I think it's best to unapologetic about one's blinders. They are not permanent, and the most valuable part of an exhibition like this one is the dialog possible because of it. I had a view of what made up art in Calgary entering this project which has been changed by my experiences working on it in Calgary, and changed by this show being put together. Art is most exciting when it disallows any fixed points and I am exhilarated by how much this is true of this exhibit.
I'm sure you've read the statements about the themes of the exhibition, and I don't need to re-iterate them. In my own experience, the themes that you start with and where you wind are relational but very different. I've been fascinated to see threads in the work of some of the artists that continue halfway around the room and stop, unshared by other artists who, in turn, share threads with several other artists, but not all either. There's too much in the work of eight artists tenuously tied by geography to make any absolute curatorial statements and I love that. It should always be a bit of a mess, it lets people in a bit more.

DP: So how did you came up with your curatorial statement in the first place and what inspiration did you came up with for that? Especially the "cultural void" term. This is an interesting term since it either implicts that artists in Calgary have full freedom to create what they want to and come up with a variety of ideas without worrying about precedents or how artists are limited in the city, since they have no school of art, no community, no history and no precedents to work with and no inspiration.
WM: That's a very interesting view of the "cultural void" I spoke of. No one else has read a double meaning into it.
I find it strange that everyone does, however, miss the "invented" part of the cultural void I'm speaking of.
Really, it's back to my own position in relation to art in Calgary. I have a Mom who sends me regular dispatches from the newspaper, and many friends who still live in Calgary and I have conversations with them about making work in Calgary, or viewing it, depending on what they do. Really, people in the city, or at least in the representations I have access to, have bought the idea that the city is lacking in culture. Not in number of artists, or funding or in studio space or galleries, but in some strange quantifiable amount of "culture". This often seems tied to a very easy equation of City + Short History + Booming Economy based on morally questionable resources = no culture.
BUT! I have to say, after living in a few cities and being an artist myself, all cities struggle around the arts. No one does it right, because there's no one-size-fits-all. You can live in Montreal and hate the kind of work the city does on festivals. You can live in Toronto and lament the insular art scene.
I look back at Calgary and see a lot of very good artists coming from there.....and many leaving. The city does not lack the raw materials to create great artists who draw from it's history, but rather lacks the patience to recognize that art may not follow the kind of boom and bust cycle that economies do.
Paper tigers are very important, but must be fully slain. And those who aren't making art, but love it, have started to do amazing things(like Zak Pashak with Sled Island, which, will be hated by some as well...this should be encouraged). No city has a cohesive art scene, there's always new threads unravelling and others being spun...that's why art is valuable.
Calgary was great to be from as a painter. Like anywhere deemed conservative and bland, I felt a great freedom to experiment AND find both peers and opponents that I wanted very badly at the time. I left, so have nothing to add except as spectator to the city's development.
I really, really love that art is a guarantee if you have people living together some of the structures that support it may be in danger by a lack of funding or space, bu the practitioners will always keep on, full of hope."

Magenta Carte Blanche, Vol. 2 - Painting: MOCCA Exhibition

2008-09-03T09:22:00.007-04:00

David Liss and Clint Roenisch have been hard at work in an underground bunker selecting the 30 painters from the list of 194 appearing in the Magenta Foundation's soon to be released book: "Carte Blanche Volume 2: Painting". These 30 painter will receive the coveted solid gold berets and will be included in the exhibition in Toronto at the MOCCA opening November 15th. They're launching the book that night too.
Obviously my Mountain Dew and Creme De Menthe cocktail gift basket was a hit. I knew campaigning was the way to go.
I'm in the book and the show. Busy autumn.
See the list here.
Pre-order your copy of the book at Amazon.

or "Wil takes a Holiday from the internet".

2008-08-26T11:09:00.003-04:00

I'm moving house, writing a new artist statement, and painting in the studio. I find I don't have much to say, except in conversation. Nothing to shout into the void of zeros and ones right now. It's been a busy summer and I've said a lot.
That means a hiatus on blogging until the fall.
If you want to converse, email me, or catch up with me at the RBC Painting Competition in September, the Toronto International Art Fair in October, or the Patrick Mikhail gallery in November

See you all in Autumn.

Plop Goes The Weasel

2008-08-11T11:46:00.005-04:00

The Weasel is hungry. The Weasel is HUNGER. So the weasel is the rube, and the end. Hunger, the weasel, DESIRE is pressed into the service of the dutiful(DOG - in the name of making his duty easier - the instutionalized violence of say, the Stanford Prison Experiment - movement towards the idleness of Foghorn), and the safe/bored(entertainment in lieu of participation, thin increasing boredom of protection without actual threat, Foghorn's orbit around duty as a negation of his position as FOOD).
The dog is forced to play FOOD.
Foghorn is inevitably FOOD.
The Weasel is HUNGER.

Notes from this morning's viewing. Food remaining a very funny word.
In other news, Nancy Tousley wrote a little review in the Calgary Herald yesterday about my two shows up in Calgary right now.

Daisy Gets Erotik

2008-08-10T13:12:00.003-04:00

For those raised where I was, the omission of "i"s dotted with an x will be a disappointment.
Something like a postscript to all the discussion of Calgary art.
I remember coming home from Vancouver one Christmas and hallucinating(I'd take some morphine before flying) or dreaming that I saw Graceland(Calgary artists space, not Elvis' house) from the air as we made the descent into Calgary. I even remember connecting the road to it, seen from the air, to one I used to drive when I worked as driver for my Dad's company.
This is a common dream.
Some missed part of a city I am familiar with. Most often found by continuing down a street I know already, past the furthest point I'd walked. Some calm comfort, some savoury dream-happiness at having found, by no more effort than continuing on, some small part in a familiar place that solicited the same feeling as walking in a specifically unfamiliar place made safe by virtue of your intention to visit it's general location.
But I walked down 14th avenue last time I was home, into a neighbourhood I don't know and it felt nothing like that. I just checked off some box in my head, easily expanded some imaginary map.

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Six: Frontier Myth Making

2008-08-06T22:41:00.006-04:00

I did an interview with Leah Sandals for the National Post last month about Painting: Thick and Thin at the Glenbow Museum. The interview will be appearing in the paper tomorrow, you can read the online version here: Questions & Artists: Frontier Myth-Making .
Leah's done a fine job of editing my hungover rambling into a cohesive interview. For a little background on the show and some words by the artists about the themes dealt with in the interview, check out these earlier posts. I've tried to develop the complexities of the exhibition's subject matter with the artists in a venue not as touched by word counts, or the editing needs of large publishers or institutions.
Exciting day, a national article published at the same day as Portrayal, a group exhibition I have some work in, opens at the Diane Farris Gallery.

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Five

2008-08-05T20:59:00.004-04:00

A very nice photo essay of the exhibition "Painting: Thick and Thin" I curated for the Sled Island Festival at the Glenbow Museum has been posted at shotgun-review.ca
For further information on this exhibition, posted on this blog and on Kim Neudorf's Writing Shed In The Woods, click here.

Painting: Thick and Thin opening at the Glenbow Museum

2008-07-24T12:04:00.002-04:00

We've got the paintings hung, the lights pointed at them, the chafing dishes counted and the booze ordered.
We're having an opening.
Painting: Thick and Thin at the Glenbow Museum July 25th to September 28th, 2008.
Featuring works by: Kim Neudorf, Miriam Bankey, Dave & Jenn, Ryan Sluggett, Kyle Beal, Chris Millar anbd Patrick Lundeen.
Curated by Wil Murray

Opening reception July 28th, 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
4th floor Gallery, Glenbow Museum
130 - 9 Avenue S.E.
Calgary, Alberta

Before she was prize winning, before she was the Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac

2008-07-16T13:18:00.004-04:00

Back when it was just called "the painting I'm working on". Early February.
*photo by Yannick Grandmont

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Four(Continued)

2008-07-12T14:54:00.004-04:00

The conversation around Painting: Thick and Thin continues.
Another response, this time by Kyle Beal, to the same questions asked in the first half of this post.
I've included the intro I originally sent with the questions
Wil Murray: My questions about place and me and you seem a little safe tonight. So...for the next can of worms, I'd like to crack open the "regional style" variety. Now, in every interview I've been adamant about this show not being a regional style show, and this has always felt a bit dodgy on my part. Mostly because I dread the association with a group, or a style, but also because I have tried to defer my won responsibility for the show, and thus any accolades for doing so, by making it clear that i could just as easily be an artist in the exhibition as the curator. That said, I'm leery to have an art team, or at least one that has been identified by an outside source. So I'm curious about a few things, and would like anyone willing to speak on this be heard.
How do you feel about the implications of a regional style that this exhibition carries with it?
Kyle Beal:I don't really, a 'regional style' might be better in terms of marketing to some, but I think that the sample is too thin to really make any serious claims to any Calgary school.

WM: Does the naming of a community(or art team) serve anyone beyond the person who named it?
KB: Hard to say, though there is certainly a whiff of careerism with naming. In other cases for other times and other cities the high of such team recognition might be somewhat use full as something to push against, on the other hand who wants to be constantly in opposition?
It makes me think of an old Groucho Marx quip...

WM: How do you feel about my position as outsider to the city I am speaking about?
KB: Well your like and insider on the outside sort of. Which is handy to some degree in that you have a more intimate knowledge compared to a total outsider, along with what might be the advantage of distance. I think that there is value in your having a gap of time and space, it seems difficult to think or reflect a bit when your in the midst of participating.

WM: Who benefits from an exhibition like this tracking a geographic community or style? How do the viewers benefit? The community beyond the artists and curator?
KB: It is just good to look up once in while. I'd compare it to a block party, because you don't always know whats happening or who's living in your neighborhood.

WM: I've been gone for eight years and don't know if the fascination with what is happening in the city goes on past this exhibition. As you might read clearly in these words, I'm struggling a bit with my position in this. I'm not fortune-teller and sometimes don't trust what my hands do while I sleep.

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Four

2008-07-10T10:46:00.005-04:00

Who can wait until tommorrow, when there's such good stuff in my inbox today(especially after the FFWD review)? The next round of questions, answered by Kim Neudorf(who made my father's favourite paintings in the exhibition). I'll add the other artists as they weigh in on the same questions.

WM: How do you feel about the implications of a regional style that this exhibition carries with it?
KN: My thought is that this exhibition includes artists who for one reason or another, happened to have lived in Calgary and have been found here, like traces. Other layers of meaning will happen when the exhibition is seen in person, adding to any expectations of “regional” and altering long-distance or drive-by experiences of the work.

WM: Does the naming of a community (or art team) serve anyone beyond the person who named it?
KN: A group name can be one way of creating a means to be more visible, for the group and for the namer, and for the public to access the work. I like temporary names that expire or become wizened, or have split-personalities.

WM: How do you feel about my position as outsider to the city I am speaking about?
KN: The circumstance that artists from Calgary, or Canadian artists in general, often no longer live and work where they’re from - this seems very normal and practical now. Though as someone who hasn't lived here for years, you may be able to see things that the Calgary-based artists can be too close to.

WM: Who benefits from an exhibition like this tracking a geographic community or style? How do the viewers benefit? The community beyond the artists and curator?
KN: If there is a tracking of a geographic community or style, I like the idea that “geographic” can also include mediated and metaphoric spaces, like the spaces in-between, described in that great book about Canadian photography – "Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography And The Canadian Imagination". Maybe the point can be about reminding viewers about what is already mediated, such as clichés and conventions about what is “geographic style”.

Ryan Sluggett (answering on the general themes presented in this round of questions):
I did recieve a specific grounding in painting from Chris Cran in
perceptual painting, and in perspective from Eric Cameron. So yes, I
have been formally trained in a regional tradition. I find that a lot
of artists assume that they are homeless these days, ignoring what is
going on in their own backyard by always thinking internationally. But
keeping yourself locked away in your studio without a context for
your work in presents other, perhaps more critical, difficulties. It's
a balancing act. I just hope that art in general will get a little
less international looking. It has a flattening effect aesthetically
and spiritually.
I wonder, is Morandi a regional artist?

*Photo by Ashley Bilodeau

Tasty FFWD Review of Painting: Thick & Thin

2008-07-10T10:04:00.007-04:00

Erin Belanger has written a review of Painting: Thick & Thin for FFWD weekly in Calgary.
Read it here.

This leads into tomorrow's blog post exploring my position in relation to naming and tracking art-teams for this exhibition.

Sexe Mania Mania Mania Mania

2008-07-09T13:26:00.003-04:00

A little source material....
I couldn't help but add one more "maniac" to it for the painting's title.
Photo from VieuxBandit's Flickr Photostream

"Portrayal" Group Exhibiton at Diane Farris Gallery

2008-07-08T20:10:00.004-04:00

I remember when I lived in Vancouver and how far the galleries of South Granville seemed from Pender Street.
I'm very excited to announce that my work will be featured in a group show coming up in Vancouver in August. This will be my first show with the Diane Farris Gallery, with more to come in the new year.
Check it out:

Portrayal
August 7 – August 30, 2008

Gallery and guest artists

Diane Farris Gallery is pleased to present Portrayal, an exhibition of varied portraits by gallery and guest artists. Portraiture has held a prominent position in western art and society throughout the ages and although creative and technological advances have altered the traditional portrait, the genre retains its prevalence and high regard. The exhibition at Diane Farris Gallery explores the portrait’s diversification by showcasing contemporary works in a variety of media such as oil, ink, photography, collage and cedar.

Diane Farris Gallery 1590 W. 7th Avenue Vancouver, Canada V6J 1S2 tel (604) 737-2629 fax (604) 737-2675

Thick and Thin Post Number Three: Where You From?

2008-07-07T10:12:00.005-04:00

Expanding on the themes of the exhibition, beyond the very brief curatorial statement, I am sending out questions to all of the artists in "Painting: Thick and Thin" to answer at their leisure.
I'm beginning to think that the answers given will display more disparity than cohesion, and this delights me. Working on this exhibition has highlighted the thousands different paths that eight people, connected by medium, school and geographical ties can take through, to, or from the same city. Threads holding together this exhibition, as I stare harder, are more and more transluscent and move every time I take my eyes away. All the while the circle drawn around becomes more solid by exhibitions, articles and talk.
Painters, except in their paintings, wear their angled skin so all blows are glancing, like those radar-deflecting spy planes. I they stand just right, everything is deflected into the paintings on the wall.

1.Given all the ways an artist can be from a geographical location (born, attended school, lived, or lives), describe to me how you are “from” Calgary.

Kim Neudorf: I’m “from” Calgary in the sense that I’ve lived here for seven years, which is the longest I've lived in any city, so it has probably influenced my perception of "city" and "living and working" more than any other place I've known. As a kid from Saskatoon, “Calgary” used to be associated with Banff, relatives' weird livingrooms, pirate ships in shopping malls, and The Spoons video for 'Romantic Traffic' mixed with an idea that the C-train was another version of the gondola (you wait forever, pay a cryptic currency, and sit cramped with strangers for an anti-climactic time). Saskatoon was about extreme weather survival, independent coffee shops, cult films from the public library, the Mendel Art Gallery, a community orchestra (8 years of violin lessons), and painting lessons from Degan Lindner. “Calgary” has been about Artist-run Centres, film festivals, The Banff Centre, Cat Power (Sled Island 2007), the BFA years (and the U of C library), my first studio at Untitled Art Society, the art and writing community, and longer-lasting friendships. There’s also the “commute”, which has introduced all kinds of new contexts for public waiting/purgatory. Mainly though, Calgary has felt and acted like a starting place (or a waiting place), not a staying place.
Chris Millar: I am from Calgary as a result of moving here to attend art school. I stuck around after graduating because I liked the city and the people who live here.
Kyle Beal: Well I was born in Calgary, and am actually third generation Calgarian. I attended grade school up to college in the city as well. More abstractly where I grew up was on the eastern most edge of the 'Properties', which at the time was the end of the city, after that was just prairie and big sky. Which might be formative in its own way.
Ryan Sluggett: I was born, attended school and lived in Calgary

GRREEDEN Installation Photo

2008-07-04T11:24:00.000-04:00

Photo by Ashley Bilodeau