Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is excited to announce Twig, an imaginative exhibition of new works from the surreal mind of Ethan Murrow. These finely detailed drawings and paintings tell fanciful stories that muse on the essential role of trees in the story of humanity.
As in past series, Murrow creates endearing characters that draw on self-portrait and self- parody in order to explore cyclical themes of growth, decay, and the natural world. The pieces are based on photographs for which Murrow and his studio team construct props, wardrobe, and sets for performance. As the compositions take shape, these photographs are blended with imagery inspired by art and history, such as Hudson River School landscape painting, old photographs, and film. With these techniques, Murrow expertly generates a contrast between familiar landscapes and fantastical figures, resulting in a narrative that operates just outside of reality and with ambiguous outcomes.
Ethan Murrow was born in 1975 in Greenfield, Massachusetts in the United States. Raised on a sheep farm in Vermont, he received his Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College and his Master of Fine Arts from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Ethan’s research and practice focuses on historical narratives and the idealized and uncomfortable ways in which they are told, retold and molded into powerful, absurd and subjective tales. In addition to works on paper, he develops large scale wall drawings, murals and installations for site specific projects and exhibitions, working closely with local communities, stakeholders, institutions and corporations. Recent solo museum shows include the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, The Cahoon Museum of American Art, The Currier Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville and the Clay Center in West Virginia. Ethan was recently awarded the Stein Emerging Artist Prize by MOCA Jacksonville, participated as Artist in residence at Expedia Group and Facebook Inc., was a fellow at the Ballinglen Foundation in Ireland, and received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship.
