Andrew Murdoch, Ongoing Investigations in Anxiety
March 17th - April 12th
The Lars Roeder Gallery is elated to welcome Andrew Murdoch for its inaugural exhibition. Ongoing Investigations in Anxiety showcases a diverse selection of works which not only create didactic conversations amongst themselves but also evoke explorations to the broader extensions of Murdoch’s oeuvre.
Murdoch exhibits both a mastery of printmaking processes and an unprecedented capacity for production. Working primarily in intaglio and lithography, he generates dark, ominous compositions of rich value and foreboding allure. The compositions are often derived using stills from 8mm pornography and home movies, as well as the artist’s own mind, and translated with a gestural, fluid hand, furthering the allusions of dimly lit passages and back-alley transactions.
The movement and chaos stands in stark opposition to what one might call a suburban calm; clean line and static composition. They seek a deeper, more authentic reality which embraces primal desire and gritty tenacity. These prints sulk and seethe with an interred tension, leaving the viewer with a simmering anxiety and the impulse to check over their shoulder.
Artist Statement
Andrew Murdoch grew up in the Northeast and holds a B.A. with a focus in printmaking from Bennington College in Bennington, VT and is currently an MFA candidate at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi in his final semester. Prior to his enrollment in the graduate program, Murdoch was the Associate Printer at Milestone Graphics, the oldest fine-arts printmaking workshop in Connecticut. Although his primary medium is printmaking, Murdoch also makes sculptural work utilizing assembled objects, ceramics, welded steel, and found imagery.
My works explore the liminal spaces between waking and dreaming, between the conscious and the subconscious and at the fringes of the unknown. Using found images, archaic media, and traditional printmaking techniques, I seek to depict the 'in-between', showing ominous yet ambiguous fragments of scenes.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,
and the oldest and strongest kind of fear of the unknown."
-H.P. Lovecraft
Ongoing Investigations in Anxiety runs from March 17th - April 12th, 2017.
