James Austin Murray

Abstract painter James Austin Murray was born in 1969 in New York City. Working simultaneously as an artist, gallerist and firefighter for many years, he began to focus solely on painting following the deeply affecting tragedy of 9/11. Murray later settled on Ivory Black as his only pigment, feeling drawn to the color black and its particular ability to emphasize the texture and movement of paint. Working in rhythmic gestures based on meditative breathing exercises, his surfaces often recall the raked sand of Zen gardens. Murray has now painted exclusively in monochrome for more than a decade, exploring the grooves, highlights, and shadows of each careful brushstroke.

Murray graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York. A growing presence in contemporary abstraction and known for his elegiac references to 9/11, he received the Dedalus Foundation Fellowship Award for residency at The Vermont Studio Center in 2011, and he has also completed residencies at The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock and Bermis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha. Prior to becoming a full-time artist, he founded and ran both the Hartnett-Murray Gallery and The Markham-Murray Gallery in Tribeca, downtown New York. Murray still lives and works in New York City.

- Always Happening, 2018,Oil on canvas on shaped board, shown at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University