MARTA MURRAY

My dad is a hobbyist photographer, and still maintains a dark room in our basement where my sister and I grew up learning to develop and print negatives. We were taught how to identify the sharpness of an image through looking at film grain in a magnifying glass, and use time to control the effects produced by an enlarger. We were handed heavy old cameras and encouraged to shoot pictures. My parents raised us to be “noticers,” that is, to be awake to our surroundings and look for beauty everywhere. As a child, I felt like a pair of eyes floating through space, taking in the world and archiving my observations as drawings or photographs.

Sensing that I myself was being observed, I was eager to impress with my sharp eye and mature sense of appreciation for the mundane.

The principle of noticing holds true for me today, particularly in a world of so many distractions that remove us from the present. These early lessons in photography were an exercise in observation, and formative to my understanding of image-making.

The curiosity and voyeurism I felt as a child behind the camera is at the heart of my work.

I paint from the discord between a life marketed and a life lived. My initial references include original photos, ads scavenged from vintage magazines, and sketches inspired by dreams.

Angel of the Morning (2023), 18” x 16”, acrylic on canvas

I gravitate toward subjects that reveal cracks in a facade, or accentuate the plasticity of something immediately attractive. The flat sinister beauty of advertisements make for seductive painting subjects, and I’m often attempting to understand how much of my memory and bias have been shaped by this imagery.

I loosely refer to logos and pop culture imagery that offer points of recognition. Matching the exact blue of masking tape, or the Dayglo orange of a price sticker is a formal interest as much as an aid to locate the viewer. My paintings are a site for my personal history and pop culture to convene and synthesize into a poster preview for my worldview.

Marta Murray (b. 1996) is a Chicago-born artist based in New York City. She received her BFA from New York University in 2018 with a concentration in Painting and Printmaking.