MURRAY WHITEHEAD
murraywhiteheadart@gmail.com www.murraywhitehead.com
434.942.0900
2651 Rose Mill Road, Arrington, VA. 22922
BIOGRAPHY
Murray Whitehead graduated with the BFA in Painting and Printmaking in 1978 from Virginia Commonwealth University Art School, Richmond, VA. He studied Painting with Jerry Donato. In 1977, a year before he graduated, Whitehead had a show at Anderson Gallery in Richmond. After graduation, he and a fellow graduate moved to New York to share a loft studio on Laight Street in Manhattan. There Murray produced large (9' x 7'), colorful semi-abstract paintings and drawings featuring water, fish, turtles, birds and plants which he showed in various ad hoc galleries (parking garages, empty storefronts, friends' studios) in his neighborhood. His first gallery show, called Just Plain Painting, was at PS 122 Gallery on First Avenue in New York. For a while he painted on old glass windows which he lit from behind, salvaged from derelict lofts charted for demolition. In 1988 Murray studied Master Gardening and Garden Design at the New York Botanical Gardens, designing and planting private and Institutional gardens in the City. He took a Lime Plaster class for Historic Preservation at Sweet Briar College in 1999, and applied the technique on several historic preservation projects in his home state. He was inspired by Janice Loeb's printmaking class at Parsons School of Design of few of which he attended. He established a studio in an old school building, The Fleetwood School, in Massies Mill since converted into a community center. In 2014, after renovating a home of his great grandmother, Murray moved his studio to the present Rose Mill Road location where he is working on a themed group of 4' x 5' oil pastel, alternative music-influenced, politically motivated drawings, 'Transition of Values: The Orange Period.'
ARTIST STATEMENT
When I entered the conversation, art had already been declared dead. According to the pundits, there was nothing left for art to do but disappear. That never made sense to me. My work flows naturally, like the movement of water and the stirring of wind. It comes from my attunement to the forces of Nature, and honors the spirits of extraordinary beings and objects in my life.
I do not believe art progresses to some end, but that it continually reinvents itself as the joyful expression of life. My images register natural patterns and rhythms. Complex symmetries and lively colors in the work mirror ecstatic shades and permutations in Nature. Their truth and honesty are instantly recognizable.
I add music to the mix, and let it drive the rhythms of certain elements. It is important to have the right music for the right inspiration. Just as psychedelic music influenced the work I produced at the old school studio, edgier alternative music will fuel the political, counter-[military-industrial-complex]-cultural work I am about to begin, dedicated to His Orangeness.
My preferred medium is Sennelier Oil Pastel on archival paper. There is tremendous gratification from saturated color exploding on white ground.For a more free-flowing kind of line, I use Isabey squirrel or martin-hair brushes with oil or acrylic paint.
So much importance is placed on the size of works. I have made 9-foot paintings and I have made 6-inch paintings, and I can tell you that scale means very little. You can have a monumental 6-inch painting, and a 9-footer that amounts to very little. It's all about content.