Installation image at LaiSun Keane; photo by Dan Watkins

John Yau - What's New in Still Life, Portrait, and Landscape

“…In her choice of closely related hues, which the painting ATOM ROCKETS DECLARED READY FOR COMBAT USE (December 21, 1952) (2022), Murray adds another layer for the viewer to reflect upon. By pairing a newspaper headline with a family photo of two boys pointing weapons at us, Murray invites viewers to ponder the ways violence and aggression are celebrated in this country. Her palette of jade blues for this painting adds another level meaning for us to consider, as it adds what I see is a sign of mournfulness and loss to the painting.”

 

Boston Art Review - New Expressions of Traditional Genres at LaiSun Keane

“… There’s a sense of tongue-in-cheek nostalgia here, a theme that runs throughout the show and is especially present in Murray’s Day-Glo-tinged child cowboys in ATOM ROCKETS DECLARED READY FOR COMBAT USE (Dec. 21, 1952) (2022) and C.B.S. BUYS SERIES TV WESTERNS (APRIL 5, 1958) (2023), the latter leaning into wistful kitsch so much as to be painted on a white-picket fence. Petrick Brooks’s hyper-real drain grate in (w)here (2022) also takes me back, though I have to spend a little time considering why it’s making my skin crawl before I realize I’m reminded of Pennywise’s hideout in Stephen King’s IT. Would I have held this association without the close proximity of Murray’s retro tykes? I’m not sure, though the sinister undercurrent feels fresh and apt. What is nostalgia, after all, if not a haunting?.”

 
 
 

Reception photo at Wellesley College; photo by Samara Pearlstein.

Time and a Half at Wellesley College

“…the work they engage in as part of that practice to be fundamentally different from the work they do at Wellesley—but as they are members of the Art Department, these two types of work are on some level intertwined. The distinction between time spent At Work and time spent On Work blurs; the time these artists spend on their art makes them better colleagues and mentors, and the time they spend at work, in conversation with art historians and other artists, feeds their work in the studio.”