Kendal Murray

The manipulation of readily identifiable everyday objects, combined with a range of evocative materials, is used by Murray to prompt an assortment of narrative associations and the examination of personal and social concepts. Through her solo exhibitions Murray has explored themes of gender and beauty, plastic surgery and the commodification of body image, the gendering of memory, nostalgia, collecting, and more recently, dream imagery in the design of self-image.

'For most, the recollection of childhood memories evokes a sense of freedom. A freedom to run wild, to climb trees, ride bikes and create an imaginative world of our very own. Kendal Murray’s works conjures this sense of child’s play and of the infinite possibilities of exploration, creation and belonging in the natural environment. For an artist whose work evokes the otherworldly, Murray’s art is grounded in realism. Familiar scenes rise up between wildflowers and tall grasses; families gather and children play amongst the wilderness, waterways and lush green landscapes of the Australian bush. Her tiny worlds are captured mid-moment, as if peering into the emotional mirage of a memory. Dogs jump, children run, and tyres swing from trees; and for a moment we remember the sound of laughter, the feeling of freedom and the insignificance of time.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Joey Hespe 2022

READ: Murray featured in This is Colossal

READ: 'In the Smile of a Tree' featured in Art Guide