James Austin Murray’s paintings are made using the most basic of means: ivory black oil paint, a canvas and wood-panel support, and wallpaper brushes—up to nine affixed to a long handle. But the surface effects are far from simple, and indeed offer an almost otherworldly experience, as the striations from the brush take the eye on a roller-coaster journey into pleats and folds, over light-struck hillocks and into shadowy crooks and bends. Depending on where you stand, the paintings look like a forbidding landscape you could walk right into. It’s a visual encounter that is both unsettling and profoundly seductive.

Selected Solo Shows

2018 Distant Stars, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2018 Future Proof, Lyons Wier Gallery, NY
2017 Light on Black, Madison Gallery, La Jolla, CA (upcoming)
2017 Solo Booth, Scope NY with Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Super Massive Black Hole, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Asia Contemporary Art Show, Hong Kong, China
2014 Art Market Hamptons, with Lyons Wier Gallery (Bridgehampton, NY)
2014 Lyons Wier Gallery, (NYC)
2014 Asia Contemporary Art Show, (Hong Kong, China)
2013 Ides of March, Narthex Gallery at St. Peters (NYC)
2007 Tree’s Whisper, Dam-Stuhltrager (Brooklyn, NY)
2005 Over-On, Dam-Stuhltrager (Brooklyn, NY)
2004 Visiting Artist, International Gallery of Contemporary Art (Anchorage, AK)
2001 On and Off White, L.I.C.K. Ltd, Fine Art (LIC, NY)

Two Person Shows

2018 Convergent Evolution, REDSEA Gallery, Singapore

Selected Group Shows

2018 Autumnal Group Exhibition, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Chromatopia, Tacit Gallery, Abbotsford, Vic, Australia
2017 Luminance, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2017 STROKE OF GENIUS, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Walking Slow, Brooklyn Workshop Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Fourthought (four person show), Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Lost Cat, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2015 Governors Island Art Fair, New York, NY
2015 Unlimited Potential, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Pulse New York with Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Art Miami, Lyons Wier Gallery, (Miami, FL)
2014 The New Artist Preview, Melissa Morgan Fine Art, (Desert Springs, CA)
2013 1stDibs, New York Design Center, (NYC)
2012 Governors Island Art Fair, (NYC)
2011 Highline Open Studio Preview Exhibition, (NYC)
2011 Dia:Beacon Staff Exhibition, Marion Royael Gallery, (Beacon, NY)
2008 American Lifescape, DBA256, (Pomona, CA)
2008 NYU Small works show, 80 WSE, (NYC)
2008 Panorama Project 3, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, (NYC)
2006 Scope Miami, Dam-Stuhltrager, (Miami, FL)
2005 Scope Miami, Dam-Stuhltrager, (Miami, FL)
2005 New Artist Show, Bettcher Gallery, (Miami, FL)
2005 Le Papier, Gescheidle Gallery, (Chicago, Illinois)
2005 Group Show, Soho Myriad, (Atlanta, GA)
2005 Scope NY, Lyons-Wier Gallery, (NYC)
2002 The Panorama Project, The Front Room (Brooklyn, NY)
2001 The Exquisite Day Project, Plus Ultra (Brooklyn, NY)
2000 Flowers and Configurations, Angel International Art, (EastHampton, NY)
1999 Sex Death and Religion, Gershwin Hotel Gallery, (NYC)
1999 Size Matters, Gale Gates et al. (Brooklyn, NY)
1996 Places People, 313 Gallery, (NYC)
1992 Human Condition, 313 Gallery, (NYC)

Awards and Residences

2011 Dedalus Foundation Fellowship Award for residency at VSC
2011 Residency at The Vermont Studio Center
2011 Artist in Residence at The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
2012 Bemis Center for Contemporary Art