Augustana Eide/Dalrymple Gallery Presents ‘The Beauty of the Mundane: Paintings by Mike Murray’

The Augustana University Eide/Dalrymple Gallery presents "The Beauty of the Mundane: Paintings by Mike Murray," which will be on view beginning on Friday, Nov. 14, through Wednesday, Dec. 10. A gallery reception, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Friday, Nov. 21, from 7-9 p.m., with an artist talk at 7:30 p.m. in the Fryxell Humanities Center Room 123. As a part of the reception, Murray will be visiting with Augustana Art Department students and giving demonstrations of his cold wax painting process.

In "The Beauty of the Mundane," painter Mike Murray invites viewers to reconsider the overlooked landscapes of daily life. Through layered images crafted with cold wax and oil paint and applied with bowl scrappers, palette knives and a variety of hardware store tools, ordinary places are transformed. A dumpster, an aging factory wall or a weathered corner of a parking lot becomes something more - a meditation on texture, color and meaning. Murray's loosely-rendered, sometimes abstract forms, compel us to pause, linger and discover beauty where we might least expect it.

Murray's artistic journey began at nine years old by watching a Saturday morning TV show hosted by the artist Jon Gnagy. A mail order kit with a booklet and charcoal supplies supplemented the show and viewers were encouraged to draw along and try to keep up.

"I did pretty well at it," recalled Murray.

Murray earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the Layton School of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Upon graduation, his goal was to start his art career and to find employment in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. He discovered that his drawing skills were in demand and began working in advertising. What he thought would be a few months' worth of work turned into a lifetime. From an intern, he rose to art director, associate creative director and then creative director and founder of his own business, Hunt Murray Advertising of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Along the way, he continued a fine arts practice in painting and printmaking - juggling his artistic practice on weekends and at night.

Augustana Professor of Art Dr. Scott Parsons first met Murray when they both took an online workshop together from Israeli artist Osnat Oliva. In this workshop with artists from around the world, Murray's work really stood out and Parsons knew that he wanted to bring Murray to campus for an exhibition and to interact with Augustana students.

"Mike's work has a kind of authenticity to the painting process that I really respond to," explained Parsons. His subject matter is very approachable with a painting method that emphasizes process, texture, relating forms and a fantastic use of color. He sees the abstraction in the everyday that is poetic and insightful. It is something that I believe is essential for our students to understand."

Murray's work has been represented by Bruggemann Contemporary, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he is now represented by Gallery 360 and Veronique Wantz, both in Minneapolis.

The Augustana Eide/Dalrymple Gallery is located at 30th Street and Grange Avenue, in the Center for Visual Arts at Augustana. The gallery is open to the public and free of charge. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Saturdays, from 1-4 p.m.