The tiny man who lies on his back in the photograph's center marks an intersection between blind luck and human intent. Above: Michael David Murphy, Untitled, San Francisco, 2006, chromogenic print, 16 x 24 inches. Image courtesy the artist and Spruill Gallery.
Something about Michael David Murphy‘s exhibition at Spruill Gallery (closing this Saturday, October 30, with a reception from 3-5PM) strikes the viewer with the photographer’s disarming warmth, spontaneous intelligence, and his refusal to ever stop working. While Murphy’s video installation and photos fill most of the gallery, one room showcases a rather sweet, though understated, series of smart paintings by abstrationist Margaret Fletcher.
Instead of dwarfing the significance of either artist, however, the asymmetry compliments both: Fletcher’s work feels like an intimate solo show seamlessly tucked inside Murphy’s more comprehensive retrospective. The yin-yang schema suggests subtle harmonies of photo-based and traditional media, representation and abstraction, male and female artists, and an established career shown alongside a relative newcomer.
Although the current show counts as Fletcher’s fine-art debut, the two artists have more in common than one might think. Murphy earned his MFA in poetry, but he switched careers and now serves as Program Manager for Atlanta Celebrates Photography. (Click here to read Susannah Darrow’s 2009 interview with Murphy.) Similarly, more than a decade has passed since Fletcher earned her master’s degree in architecture from Harvard, but now she paints. Her design concepts, inspired by her architectural background, are unfortunately easy to miss—she makes “paintings” by applying tiny press-on letters in Helvetica script.
Michael David Murphy, UNphotographable, 2010, installation view. Photo courtesy the artist and Spruill Gallery.
Murphy’s Certainty Principle contains several bodies of work dating from as far back as 2005. One standout is a full-room installation inspired by UNphotographable, Murphy’s photo blog that uses text to document photographs that were never taken.
Fellow artists often have poignant observations about the work of others. I was intrigued to find this description of Murphy’s installation, for example, on Jennifer Schwartz‘s blog:
“As a photographer I can completely relate to this idea of the unphotographable. Images that cannot be captured with a camera because a still image would not be able to describe the poignancy of a scene . . . or because you left your camera at home. I only wish I had the genius idea to write these unphotographables down and then the further genius to create an installation of them.”
Fortunately, much of Murphy’s show can still can be seen online. Click here to browse through a selection of photos and videos from Certainty Principle to see what you might have missed.
(Disclosure: Hope Cohn of Spruill Gallery is a member of this publication’s Board of Directors. BURNAWAY is committed to reviewing work that we feel contributes to important discourse in Atlanta. In our commitment to transparency, our policy is to disclose instead of exclude.)
The exhibitions by both artists close this Saturday, October 30.
