Brett Murray
27 Sep - 28 Oct 2006
Brett Murray
Sleep Sleep
Now living and working in Cape Town, South African born artist Brett Murray has exhibited his work extensively in South Africa and abroad. The exhibition entitled ‘Sleep Sleep’ is a new series of work; including bronzes, paintings, prints, plastic cut outs and photographs.
The exhibition débuted at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg from 29 April – 20th May and opens at João Ferreira Gallery on 16 August, running until 16 September.
Sculptor Brett Murray is best known for his work which explores South African society through satire. He has previously defined himself as a ‘white, middle-class cultural hybrid’ (Williamson 2004:262). This central theme of tragedy and satire has been extended in Murray’s new body of work.
Brett started this body of work (‘Sleep Sleep’) in 2005. When speaking about the body of work Brett commented that, ‘I consciously didn’t constrict or frame what I was doing into a thematic straight jacket. My intention was to use different materials and processes and to allow for awkward jumps and associations between one group of ideas to the next in order to see where this would lead me.’ Working in this way Murray has used a variety of media including bronze, paintings, prints, plastic cut outs and photographs. His bronzes describe children’s toy-like animals as thinly veiled attacks on notions of incompetence, greed and buffoonery. There is a series of large plastic drawings of ‘sleeping’ heads describing a kind of a somnambulist funk. Murray has also produced a group of photographic self portraits which have the facetious title ‘New Beginnings’, and has painted a Zen-like series of portraits of his ‘favorite’ politician’s arse-holes. In addressing issues of war Murray has produced a series of re-worked Cardies style images. This body of work also includes a few text based works and some paintings which are based on 50’s neo-colonial book covers.
Sleep Sleep
Now living and working in Cape Town, South African born artist Brett Murray has exhibited his work extensively in South Africa and abroad. The exhibition entitled ‘Sleep Sleep’ is a new series of work; including bronzes, paintings, prints, plastic cut outs and photographs.
The exhibition débuted at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg from 29 April – 20th May and opens at João Ferreira Gallery on 16 August, running until 16 September.
Sculptor Brett Murray is best known for his work which explores South African society through satire. He has previously defined himself as a ‘white, middle-class cultural hybrid’ (Williamson 2004:262). This central theme of tragedy and satire has been extended in Murray’s new body of work.
Brett started this body of work (‘Sleep Sleep’) in 2005. When speaking about the body of work Brett commented that, ‘I consciously didn’t constrict or frame what I was doing into a thematic straight jacket. My intention was to use different materials and processes and to allow for awkward jumps and associations between one group of ideas to the next in order to see where this would lead me.’ Working in this way Murray has used a variety of media including bronze, paintings, prints, plastic cut outs and photographs. His bronzes describe children’s toy-like animals as thinly veiled attacks on notions of incompetence, greed and buffoonery. There is a series of large plastic drawings of ‘sleeping’ heads describing a kind of a somnambulist funk. Murray has also produced a group of photographic self portraits which have the facetious title ‘New Beginnings’, and has painted a Zen-like series of portraits of his ‘favorite’ politician’s arse-holes. In addressing issues of war Murray has produced a series of re-worked Cardies style images. This body of work also includes a few text based works and some paintings which are based on 50’s neo-colonial book covers.