Oscar Murillo: Surge | David Zwirner

This online-only exhibition features new works on paper from Oscar Murillo’s celebrated surge series. Shown in tandem with a solo exhibition of Murillo’s large-scale paintings at David Zwirner New York, this presentation offers an intimate look into the artist’s distinctive, associative practice.

Murillo’s surge works (2018–present) are characterized by layers of frenetic marks built up on canvas or paper to create a thick impasto, often obscuring the content and information beneath. The gestural marks reflect both the surge of energy used to create the works and the ability of water to flow indiscriminately, without regard to maps or borders, conjuring a utopian and cautionary vision of contemporary geopolitics.

The series debuted in 2019 at Kettle’s Yard, in a presentation that led to the artist’s nomination for and eventual winning of last year’s Turner Prize, which he shared with the other short-listed artists.

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

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Oscar Murillo in his studio with in-progress paintings from his surge series, 2022. Photo by Tim Bowditch

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

The series is inspired in part by Monet’s water lilies and the French impressionist painter’s cataract eye condition, which impaired his vision while he painted the famous works.

Murillo refers to the idea of “social cataracts,” a darkness of vision that prevents society from seeing clearly and also reflects the turbulent social upheaval of his native Colombia, where he worked during the pandemic.

Still from a video featuring Oscar Murillo by Woestwerk. Courtesy KM21, The Hague, Netherlands

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

Installation view of Oscar Murillo’s new works on paper, 2022

This idea [of] social cataracts is something that grammatically doesn’t make sense. But poetically, in your head, it does somehow—the idea of society having cataracts, that we’re in this kind of blinded existence; the façade of beauty.
–Oscar Murillo

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

These new works also build on Murillo’s poetics of flight drawings (2019), which were made on airplanes during the artist’s extensive travels.

By layering surge mark making over intaglio prints rooted in his poetics of flight series, Murillo brings together the larger sociopolitical resonances of both bodies of work.

As with his large-scale canvases, for these works on paper Murillo builds up layers of found and invented imagery and phrases, as well as gestural markings in intuitively placed planes.

Oscar Murillo in his studio, 2022. Photo by Tim Bowditch

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

The works relate to Murillo’s large-scale surge paintings, which often utilize a process that engages the artist’s entire body, but these smaller-scale works are made in a more nimble and immediate way.

He begins with an intaglio printmaking process by drawing an image directly onto a copper plate, scratching into it more deeply and aggressively than is common, to achieve a singular motif. He then prints the image onto the paper multiple times and continues to build upon the composition using ink, graphite, oil, or crayon, resulting in dense, visually layered surfaces that juxtapose the two kinds of mark making, both mechanical and gestural.

The works present the paradox of a beautiful surface with something dark and unknowable concealed beneath.

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

A related series of small-scale works on paper were recently shown at KM21 in The Hague.

Installation view, Oscar Murillo: Social Cataracts, KM21, The Hague, Netherlands, 2021. Photo by Gert Jan van Rooij

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

I’m interested in this idea of darkness; the antagonisms that darkness brings have been the inspiration for this work.
–Oscar Murillo

A work in progress in Oscar Murillo’s studio, 2022. Photo by Tim Bowditch

Oscar Murillo

surge (poetics of flight), 2021

Oil, graphite, ink, crayon, and intaglio print on paper

22 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (57 x 38 cm)
Framed: 29 x 21 1/2 inches (73.5 x 54.5 cm)

Inquire

Oscar Murillo, surge (poetics of flight), 2021 (detail)

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Visit Oscar Murillo: Ourself behind ourself concealed at David Zwirner New York