Oscar Murillo - Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Monday, November 11, 2013 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    CARLOS/ISHIKAWA, London

  • Catalogue Essay

    “Paintings happen in the studio where I have my own kind of system, although there can be physical residue of performance in them. I like to cut up the canvas in different sections, work on them individually, fold them and just leave them around for months [...] It’s not about leaving traces, it’s about letting things mature on their own like aging cheese or letting a stew cook, they get more flavorful. That’s kind of how these paintings are made.”
    (The artist quoted in L. Russell, Oscar Murillo in BOMB, Winter 2013).

    As one of the most energetic young artists to emerge in recent memory, Colombian-born, London- based Oscar Murillo’s story is only just beginning. His rapid ascension in public consciousness is due in large part to what many have described as a practice that lacks boundaries. His oeuvre spans the fields of performance, installation, publishing, sculpture and painting. In many, if not most, cases, we see elements of each discipline simultaneously incorporated into the artist’s work. As Murillo has noted, “A painting is a rectangular device used to record things.” For him, his canvases exist as repositories of experiences and as records of his own personal and artistic growth.

    The current lot exemplifies this practice, as it is at once gestural— underscoring the performative dimension of his process—and veritable in its incorporation of text as a direct link to his own cultural history. The word ‘Pollo’, boldly foregrounded in green, is emblematic of the artist’s penchant for using the canvas as a personal archive and as a means of carrying on a performance into perpetuity. In this case, that dialogue is rooted in food and in his Colombian heritage. This achievement is echoed in his inclusion of detritus from his everyday life. Be they actual food parts, dirt or dust, all are parts of the same whole that comprise the artist’s evolving identity.

42

Untitled

2011
oilstick, spray paint, enamel and graphite on canvas
74 3/4 x 69 7/8 in. (190 x 177.5 cm.)

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for $293,000

Contact Specialist
Zach Miner
Head of Evening Sale
zminer@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1256

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York 11 November 2013 7PM