Jeff Bailey Gallery is pleased to present Martin McMurray: The Unreliable Narrator.
McMurray presents us with a cast of characters, both real and imagined. Paintings and drawings of movie projectors, typewriters and tape recorders are mixed with images of various individuals and snapshots. A life is recalled: not one, but several. Ruminations become stories with different points of view.
In Scriptwriter, a fresh sheet of paper has been inserted into a large typewriter that sits unattended. The Yawning Abyss, No. 1, features a man sitting in his bathrobe, surrounded by sheets of paper tacked to the wall. He holds a sheet in each hand. Are they blank, or filled with text? Either way, he appears in the throes of an editorial dilemma.
In Lansing, a hand holds a sepia toned snapshot of a young woman. She stands with her hand on her hip, gazing at both the viewer and the man who holds her picture. The photograph freezes her in time, but she is being considered anew. A camper sits parked in The Departure. A small and temporary home on wheels, it is ready for the next adventure.
Included in the exhibition is a volume of books titled The Undoing. With titles such as What Came Between Us and Razing the Burden of Self, the author seems to ask as many questions as he attempts to answer.
It is hard to pin down McMurray’s narrator. He may be a scriptwriter, a ghostwriter, a playwright, or someone else. His stories are still unfolding.
This is Martin McMurray’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. His most recent solo exhibition was with Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects and he will have a solo exhibition with Galerie Nouvelle Images, The Hague, Netherlands, opening in April. His work was featured in the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport and in Palette at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York. He is a recipient of a 2007 Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation. McMurray lives and works in Berkeley, California.