Currents 121: Oscar Murillo

This exhibition occurred in the past. The archival exhibition summary below describes the exhibition as it was conceived while on view.

Oscar Murillo (born Colombia, 1986) examines notions of cultural exchange, globalization, labor, and action through monumental paintings that reflect the processes of their making.

In Currents 121: Oscar Murillo the Museum showcases new paintings created in the artist’s Colombian hometown, La Paila, where he has resided during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this time, Murillo channeled his artistic energy into the creative and physical act of painting. The resulting works—on view in the exhibition—are part of an ongoing series of large-scale paintings titled manifestation (2018–), characterized by bold, forceful swaths of bright blue and deep red paint obliterated by furious black marks made with an unmistakable physicality.

The works combine the traces of an individual’s act of painting, embodied in Murillo’s hand with a thoughtful, personal witnessing of world politics. For Murillo the idea of physical presence and gesture in painting is connected to the act of using one’s body to demonstrate dissent in the face of power. In fact, the term manifestation is used in several languages to describe political protest.

Currents 121: Oscar Murillo is curated by Hannah Klemm, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, and Molly Moog, research assistant for modern and contemporary art.

Currents 121: Oscar Murillo is supported by a grant from the Trio Foundation of St. Louis.

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