ART CITIES: London-Oscar Murillo

Oscar Murillo is known for an inventive and itinerant practice that encompasses paintings, works on paper, sculptures, installations, actions, live events, collaborative projects, and videos. Taken as a whole, his body of work demonstrates a sustained emphasis on the notion of cultural exchange and the multiple ways in which ideas, languages, and even everyday items are displaced, circulated, and increasingly intermingled.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Archive

Oscar Murillo’s project, “THEM”, unites elements of Murillo’s practice and complements “The flooded garden” (2024), his newly commissioned installation at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, “THEM” considers the simple yet radical act of mark making, intertwining themes of community, kinship, globalization, and the universal. The word them is both quotidian and profound, at moments carrying antagonistic political and social overtones. It also resonates with the concepts underlying “The flooded garden”, which was inspired by the paintings that Claude Monet produced in his garden in Giverny, France, during his battle with cataracts. Murillo was drawn to the visual qualities of Monet’s paintings and intrigued by their origins in physical and emotional struggle. Thinking about cataracts evoked for the artist the idea of “social blindness” or the inability to connect meaningfully with the realities of other people. The exhibition includes painted works on paper from the series “study for social cataracts” (2021–), which pursues this concept.These works are incorporated into “Mesmerizing Beauty” (2021–), an installation in which cheap, utilitarian white plastic chairs serve as symbolic empty vessels that support the works on paper.The presentation also includes a unique painted edition of “THEM” (2015–24), Murillo’s unpublished artist’s book filled with abstract and symbolic markings that overlay and obscure photographs from his childhood. Over several years, Murillo has spent time intervening in the pages on this intimate scale. At points, the additions deliberately obfuscate the identity of the individuals in the images, emphasizing the universality of kinship and the significance of the gesture. Murillo’s interest in and experimentation with mark making has been fueled in large part by “Frequencies” a participatory project that he began in 2013 which uses the school desk as a system with which to capture the collective consciousness of thousands of young people. A selection of Murillo’s wearable sculptures, “Arepas y Tamales” (2022–), and associated printed shirts are also on view, as well as the video “meet me! Mr. Superman” (2013–15). Shot on a handheld camera, the work captures the preparations for a New Year’s Day parade in Murillo’s hometown of La Paila in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca region. Just as the photographs in THEM are obfuscated, the location and individuals in the video resist easy identification; rather, the work captures the occasion’s communal energy.

Photo: Oscar Murillo, study for social cataracts, 2024, Oil on paper, 16 x 20 inches (40.6 x 50.8 cm), © Oscar Murillo, Photo: Tim Bowditch and Reinis Lismanis, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian

Info: Gagosian Gallery, 28–29 Burlington Arcade, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 25/7-24/8/2024, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, https://gagosian.com/