BRETT MURRAY
BRETT MURRAY, Angry Bird
Polished bronze, 27 x 58.5 x 30 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Pause
Bronze, 41 x 21 x 27 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Premonition
Bronze, 40 x 16.5 x 19 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Who?
Marble and gold leaf, 50 x 83 x 3.7 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Limbo
Marble and gold leaf, 50 x 83 x 3.7 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Bond
Bronze, 58 x 30 x 52 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Limbo
Bronze, 50 x 25 x 32 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Tether
Bronze, 66 x 53 x 35 cm
‘Whereas before, my animal sculptures might symbolically mock predators, policemen, politicians, oligarchs, sycophants, the corrupted and the like, during lockdown I felt impelled to look closer to home for my subject matter. My interests had been shifting from perpetrators to people and I have been wanting to transition from an accusatory position to one that is more compassionate and empathetic.
– Brett Murray
Brett Murray’s recent sculptures have a shared sense of vulnerability and fragility about them, not unlike the Japanese netsuke that inspired them. His symbolic portraits represent all of us, looking skywards for answers and certainty.
BRETT MURRAY, Omen
Bronze, 25 x 18 x 28 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Protect
Bronze, 40 x 25 x 30 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Refuge
Carrara marble, 43 x 30.2 x 60 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Citizen
Bronze, 63 x 58 x 46 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Hold
Bronze, 58 x 30 x 46 cm
BRETT MURRAY, Witness
Bronze, 35 x 18 x 18.5 cm
BRETT MURRAY, The Fundamentalists
Bronze, 250 x 250 x 350 cm
The Fundamentalists by acclaimed South African artist, Brett Murray, were created as part of a recent body of work entitled Again Again and continues the artist’s abiding preoccupation with our tendency to perpetuate past mistakes and repeat the cycle again. And again.
Murray’s monumental gorillas butt heads, seemingly locked in an eternal impasse. The artist ‘darkly ponders the fatal turn in every conversation that reduces conflict to its extremes … thereby killing the very heart of debate. If no one can speak each to each then what is left but a crazed blather full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? It is this nullification, this dead-end, which for Murray sums up the times.’*
‘I think we live in interesting times,’ says Murray, ‘where conversations are becoming more and more polarised and the rights and the wrongs of your political positions are becoming more difficult to define, and there’s a big grey area in the middle. Often what an artist can do is prick holes in that divide and I think some of my work does sometimes do that – and it’s potentially uncomfortable. I continue to feel the urge to expose the absurdities of the powerful through satire. Through my work I hope to explore my jaundiced love/hate relationship with South Africa’s unfolding democracy.’
* Ashraf Jamal, writer and cultural theorist
Contact: info@everardlondon.com
Image Credit: Michael Hall / Artist portrait: Stephanie Veldman
BRETT MURRAY, Boiled Frog
French red marble, 32 x 33 x 27 cm (12 1/2 x 13 x 10 5/8 in.)
This body of work traces its origins to the start of this decade and the artist’s experience of the global pandemic. It marks what writer, Noah Swinney, describes as “an idiomatic shift in Murray’s work from polemics to elegy; a transition from what the artist has called, an accusatory position to one that is more compassionate and empathetic.”
BRETT MURRAY, Comfort
Bronze, 38 x 70 x 62 cm (15 x 27 1/2 x 24 3/8 in.)
In a world mired in conflict, uncertainty and political tumult, Murray continues to reflect and express our collective need to seek solace and safety and find sanctuary in the humans to whom we are closest. “These works are not argumentative, they’re meditative,” observed art critic Graham Wood. “They’re not subversive, they’re introspective. They’re not about intellect, they’re about emotion. They’re not about politics, they’re about relationships.”
BRETT MURRAY, Death of Innocence
Bronze, 30 x 21 x 25 cm (11 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.)
While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak of the loss and damage that are an integral part of all human experience.
BRETT MURRAY, Effigy
Bronze, 23 x 21.5 x 22 cm (9 x 8 3/8 x 8 5/8 in.)
This body of work traces its origins to the start of this decade and the artist’s experience of the global pandemic. It marks what writer, Noah Swinney, describes as “an idiomatic shift in Murray’s work from polemics to elegy; a transition from what the artist has called, an accusatory position to one that is more compassionate and empathetic.”
BRETT MURRAY, Father
Bronze, 45 x 27 x 31 cm (17 5/8 x 10 5/8 x 12 1/8 in.)
For some of Murray’s silent animal avatars, crafted in bronze or marble, the world seems to weigh heavily as they gaze heavenwards with trepidation and in a search for answers. Others are brooding and subdued. Huddled together or clinging to one another, many of the sculptures convey a poignant tenderness and vulnerability. These symbols of the family unit - together, touching, protected, and protecting - strike a universal chord.
BRETT MURRAY, Heed
Bronze, 45 x 21 x 22 cm (17 5/8 x 8 1/4 x 8 5/8 in.)
Huddled together or clinging to one another, many of Murray’s sculptures convey a poignant tenderness and vulnerability. These symbols of the family unit - together, touching, protected, and protecting - strike a universal chord. While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak to the loss and hurt that are an integral part of all human experience.
BRETT MURRAY, Hope
Bardiglio and Carrara marble, 55 x 47.5 x 42.4 cm (21 5/8 x 18 5/8 x 16 5/8 in.)
In a world mired in conflict, uncertainty and political tumult, Murray continues to reflect and express our collective need to seek solace and safety and find sanctuary in the humans to whom we are closest. “These works are not argumentative, they’re meditative,” observed art critic Graham Wood. “They’re not subversive, they’re introspective. They’re not about intellect, they’re about emotion. They’re not about politics, they’re about relationships.”
BRETT MURRAY, Innocence
Bronze, 30 x 21 x 25 cm (11 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.)
While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak of the loss and damage that are an integral part of all human experience.
BRETT MURRAY, Loom
Bronze, 55 x 25 x 32 cm (21 5/8 x 9 3/4 x 12 1/2 in.)
For some of Murray’s silent animal avatars, crafted in bronze or marble, the world seems to weigh heavily as they gaze heavenwards with trepidation and in a search for answers. Others are brooding and subdued. Huddled together or clinging to one another, many of the sculptures convey a poignant tenderness and vulnerability. These symbols of the family unit - together, touching, protected, and protecting - strike a universal chord.
BRETT MURRAY, Love in the Time of War I
Bronze, 35 x 17 x 16.5 cm (13 3/4 x 6 5/8 x 6 3/8 in.)
In a world mired in conflict, uncertainty and political tumult, Murray continues to reflect and express our collective need to seek solace and safety and find sanctuary in the humans to whom we are closest. “These works are not argumentative, they’re meditative,” observed art critic Graham Wood. “They’re not subversive, they’re introspective. They’re not about intellect, they’re about emotion. They’re not about politics, they’re about relationships.”
BRETT MURRAY, Monument to a Genocide
Carrara marble, 12 x 20 x 21 cm (4 5/8 x 7 3/4 x 8 1/4 in.)
While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak of the loss and damage that are an integral part of all human experience.
BRETT MURRAY, One Day
Marble and gold leaf, 56 x 110 x 4 cm (22 x 43 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.)
This body of work traces its origins to the start of this decade and the artist’s experience of the global pandemic. It marks what writer, Noah Swinney, describes as “an idiomatic shift in Murray’s work from polemics to elegy; a transition from what the artist has called, an accusatory position to one that is more compassionate and empathetic.”
BRETT MURRAY, Peace
Bronze, 20 x 20 x 17 cm (7 3/4 x 7 3/4 x 6 5/8 in.)
In reflecting on what is unfolding, I hope to articulate a very personal understanding and an idiosyncratic psychological sense of place, and begin to describe who I am with this anomalous vision. Paradoxically, through this critique and comic exposure, I actually begin to define a preferred ideal in which I would like to live. - Brett Murray
BRETT MURRAY, Protect
Carrara marble, 40 x 25.3 x 27.6 cm (15 5/8 x 10 x 10 3/4 in.)
Huddled together or clinging to one another, many of Murray’s sculptures convey a poignant tenderness and vulnerability. These symbols of the family unit - together, touching, protected, and protecting - strike a universal chord. While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak to the loss and hurt that are an integral part of all human experience.
BRETT MURRAY, Son
Bronze, 34 x 18.7 x 24.8 cm (13 3/8 x 7 3/8 x 9 3/4 in.)
In a world mired in conflict, uncertainty and political tumult, Murray continues to reflect and express our collective need to seek solace and safety and find sanctuary in the humans to whom we are closest.
BRETT MURRAY, The Great Unknown
Bronze, 35 x 25 x 27 cm (13 3/4 x 9 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.)
While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak of the loss and damage that are an integral part of all human experience.
BRETT MURRAY, Witness
Carrara marble, 40 x 20 x 21.2 cm (15 5/8 x 7 3/4 x 8 1/4 in.)
For some of Murray’s silent animal avatars, crafted in bronze or marble, the world seems to weigh heavily as they gaze heavenwards with trepidation and in a search for answers. Others are brooding and subdued. Huddled together or clinging to one another, many of the sculptures convey a poignant tenderness and vulnerability. These symbols of the family unit - together, touching, protected, and protecting - strike a universal chord.
BRETT MURRAY, Witnesses
Bronze, 40 x 27 x 50 cm (15 5/8 x 10 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
Huddled together or clinging to one another, many of Murray’s sculptures convey a poignant tenderness and vulnerability. These symbols of the family unit - together, touching, protected, and protecting - strike a universal chord. While some works evoke pathos, others stoke unease and allude to an inherent violence. The hopeful is countered with gaping holes that speak to the loss and hurt that are an integral part of all human experience.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.