The Green Room Exhibitions – John Murray.

about

Based on images from Soviet newspapers and images, Breaking Up bears witness to a country with a short but tumultuous history.

Using elements of figuration and abstraction, the paintings combine textual and visual elements, predominantly of the later Soviet period, when the threads that held together the fabric of the Union gradually began to loosen until, to everyone’s surprise, the entire vast patchwork of nations and peoples unravelled. Almost overnight a country of some 290 million people with over a hundred ethnic groups and covering more than a sixth of the earth’s landmass was no more. 

Artist Bio

Working and living in Dublin, John Murray is a painter who has exhibited throughout the country and internationally and is a member of the Nua Art Collective. Named Irish Print Journalist of the Year for his reporting from Russia with The Sunday Tribune newspaper, John holds a PhD in Russian from Trinity College, Dublin, where he lectures with the Russian Department. For several years he ran a Masters programme in Textual and Visual Studies.

A theme of John’s work as a painter has been his response to living and working in Russia and the Soviet Union. In particular, the legacy of the October Revolution and its aftermath are subjects that have fascinated him both as an artist and cultural historian. 

Find out more at johnmurray.ie