cannot believe it is already time for the october opening of solo exhibitions for todd murphy and daniel anselmi. two highly anticipated exhibition we have been working on for over a year. we showed todd murphy’s paintings early on when todd was living in atlanta and later charlottesville, va. his hauntingly mysterious mixed media works have always spoken loudly to us. his paintings transcend and suspend time in their simplicity conveying a powerful message to the viewer to stop and look. the beauty of his subject matter glows from within and captures your attention conveying you to place of wonder.
todd murphy was born in chicago and moved to georgia as a child. after studying art at the university of georgia, he began his artistic career in atlanta. for more than three decades, todd murphy has explored a practice that combines sculpture, painting and photography. with the inquisitiveness of a 19th century naturalist, murphy has traveled to the far reaches of the world, collecting, photographing, and fastidiously cataloging everything from melting glaciers, to aviary species, to exotic fruit. his photographic studies of curiosities become sources for complex narratives based on philosophy, mythology, and the supernatural. in his work, murphy often goes beyond these classical prototypes to include subtexts of bigotry, southern history, and fantastic literary stories. In the end, his recurring protagonists — horses, birds, dresses, and boats — are poetic vehicles for a humanistic discourse.
murphy’s photography has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the united states, europe and asia. his work can be found in public and private collections such as the high museum of art, georgia; new orleans museum, louisiana; mint museum, north carolina; the georgia museum and the university of georgia. todd murphy has been a visiting artist and lecturer at the university of georgia, university of california san francisco, university of virginia, university of south carolina and the high museum of art in atlanta. he has been a consultant to fortune 500 companies, private corporations and non-profits. murphy currently lives and works out of brooklyn, new york.
we were taken by daniel anselmi’s collage paintings the first time we laid eyes on his work. the complex compositions with their limited color palette lend to sophistication. daniel extensively sources vintage paper which he paints multiple times to achieve the perfect color. the surfaces are built up with layer after layer of painted papers tediously rolled over and over until the composition falls into place. ridges appears from the layers like a map. the artist uses old wooden blocks worn smooth over time to then sand down the surface thus creating more subtle markings to the works. the result of daniel’s pain staking labor speaks for itself.
daniel anselmi works with paint and all manner of cast off paper to create abstract and layered compositions of texture, form, line and color. in this series, vibrant color as well as scale play new, important roles. he has shown extensively in new england, including at the university of maine museum of art, the center for maine contemporary art, the portland public library, and the university of new england.
my works on paper and canvas explore the use of paper as an ongoing dialogue between painting and collage. i use painted paper as one would handle a brush to elicit brushstrokes on canvas. never using the new, i enjoy the felt quality of the discarded: blueprints, old ledgers, chart papers, and used canvas dropcloths are materials that offer an aesthetic conversation with my work. the paint i apply to these various materials, whether in large cut pieces or intimate fragments, and affix to already created surfaces, offers countless opportunities to express color, line, and form. though sourced materials are not intended to be recognizable in these abstractions, sometimes surface traces remain that become a moment of discovery for the discriminating viewer.
-daniel anselmi 2018
all available work by both artists can be viewed on their artist’s page. the opening is from 6-8 pm tonight and both artists will be present. please call the gallery if you have any questions concerning the shows.