Books Oscar Murillo | ||
 | ||
Similar Lucien Smith, Stefan Simchowitz, Joe Bradley, Dan Colen, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo | ||
Oscar Murillo (born 1986 in La Paila, Colombia) is a Colombian artist working within the painting tradition. He currently lives and works in London.
Contents
One work from 2012 is a seven-metre-long painting which he made in the private museum of Don and Mera Rubell. Murillo carries out performance works in order to contextualize his paintings. Critic Legacy Russell said that the artist explores 'the body in transit' in his work.
Early life and education
Murillo was born, and spent the first ten years of his life, in La Paila, a small town in the Valle del Cauca Department of Colombia. His parents moved to London when he was 10 years old and knew no English.
In 2007, Murillo earned his BA.(Hons) in Fine Art at University of Westminster. After graduating, he worked as a teacher in a secondary school. He soon quit his job and traveled to South America with his wife, Angelica Fernandes, whose family is from Venezuela. In 2012, Murillo graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, with an MA in Fine Art. Living in East London, he often worked as an installer for the neighborhood’s small galleries.
Work
Murillo's work is fundamentally tied to the studio environment itself where he produces them:
Things get moved around, I step on them, and they get contaminated. It’s not about leaving traces; it’s about letting things mature on their own-like aging cheese or letting a stew cook, they get more flavorful. That’s kind of how these paintings are made.
He is collaborating with schools around the world in a project that involves covering students’ desks with canvases and asking children to draw on them, their creations eventually becoming part of a larger work.
Art market
In February 2013, London auctions at Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips all included Murillo’s work. Artnet estimates that 24 Murillo pieces generated a total of $4.8 million at auction that year. Untitled, 2012 sold for £218,500 at Phillips, London, 16 October 2013.
Murillo is represented by David Zwirner Gallery in New York and London.