David Murphy

Cadogan is delighted to announce our collaboration for the first time with British artist David Murphy and his new exhibition 'Distances' which is currently on view at Cadogan Solo, Milan.

Both a painter and sculptor, Murphy's work explores the interplay between volume, light, space and line. The forms that inhabit David Murphy’s works often develop out of accumulations - discrete actions that embrace unpredictability within repetitive processes. With the Long Ending and Blanket paintings, Murphy prepares Gesso Panels using traditional French chalk and rabbit skin glue following a technique devised by Cennino Cennini in the 15th century. To this surface Murphy applies multiple layers of casein paint in meshed lines, to create a dense textile-like surface. Once dry, and polished, a sequence of more or less regular lines are scratched with an etching needle into the surface, excavating an image from the chalk that teeters on the brink of three-dimensions. These are slow and meditative abstract works that remain highly allusive: at once recalling the microcosm and the macrocosm, tracks and furrows, mountains and valleys, fabrics or upholstery.