Catherine Murphy's Second London Solo Show Opens at Sadie Coles HQ

Sadie Coles HQ on Bury Street in London opens a solo exhibition of recent work by Catherine Murphy in September. The presentation is the American painter's second solo show in the British capital. Born in 1946 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Murphy has lived and worked for decades in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she stages painted views of real and imagined scenarios set in and around her home and studio. Her practice since the 1970s has turned everyday subjects into something extraordinary. Murphy's exacting realism once placed her within the still life tradition, but over the last twenty years her approach has moved away from direct observation toward psychologically charged and subtly surreal readings of the objects around her. She concentrates on overlooked and unexpected vantage points, reframing and resizing the familiar. Cropped, partial compositions, heightened colour and carefully choreographed scenes give idiosyncratic glimpses of objects an unsettling quality, transforming their character. The exhibition is presented at Sadie Coles HQ, Bury Street, London.