September 8, 2022 - October 22, 2022

60 Lispenard Street

P: 212 925 4631

New York, NY

Luke Murphy: Industrial Incandescent

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Installation views of Luke Murphy Industrial Incandescent

Canada is pleased to present Industrial Incandescent, Luke Murphy’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. Murphy’s dazzling light sculptures are comprised of LED panels, found objects and constructed armatures. Murphy uses the panels to display abstract effects utilizing nearly endless color and tempo variations, foregrounding the furtive beauty hidden in mass-produced displays.

Murphy embeds material meaning inside the works by conflating different epochs of technology. In Line through Ladder (Fire Exchange) he presents artifacts from three different centuries:  a section of a 19th century wooden beam, a ladder from the 20th century, and contemporary LED panels with a repurposed video conference computer. The work becomes a meditation on labor, tools, utility, and technology through time with disparate parts bound together by digital fire. Murphy uses the malleability of the LED panels to buttress or resist the architecture of the gallery. Open Circuit features a languid blue scroll that follows an arc. In contrast, Corner Beams employs a colorful and dynamic pattern with an armature that leans against or presses out of a corner. Industrial Incandescent pulses with color and movement. Each piece can be seen individually or as a part of a forest of flickering light and color. The endless variations recall a walk in a city, commerce tugs continuously on our sleeves, beckoning attention. We can listen to the come-ons or simply enjoy the spectacle of the chorus of voices speaking all at once.

Murphy shares formal affinities with modernist painting, as well the work of minimalist sculptors Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. Like a painter with a palette covered with oil paint, Murphy uses computer code to deepen a blue or lighten a red. The ambition inMurphy’s project is to recreate the qualities of abstract painting and sculpture with the completely miraculous yet banal materials of coffee carts and 99 cent store advertising. Murphy gently moves us towards human warmth through plastic advertising panels, binary computer code, and his respect for labor and craft.

The works stake claims between nearly impossible poles, the ineffable and quotidian, the hand made and disembodied.

Luke Murphy (b.1963, Boston, MA) lives and works in New York, NY. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), Scottsdale, AZ; Canada, New York, NY; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL; Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Quebec; and Postmasters, New York, NY, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of  Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), Scottsdale, AZ and the Kadist Foundation, San Francisco, CA. He received his BS from the University of Toronto in 1985; BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1988; and MFA from State University of New York at Purchase in 1991.

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Corner Beams, 2022
LED matrix panels, metal studs, armature, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
96 × 54 × 48 in.

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Small Composition, 2022
Metal armature, LED matrix panels, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
25 × 25 × 3 in. 

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Line Through Ladder (Fire Exchange), 2021
Ladder (20th c.), barn sills (19th c.), steel studs, LED matrix panels, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
68 × 38 × 37 in. 

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Tower Pattern, 2022
LED matrix panels, metal studs, armature, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
75.5 × 7.5 × 7.5 in. 

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(I See You've Been) Lonesome Too, 2021
P4 mm LED matrix panels, metal armature, metal enclosure, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
42 × 42 × 42 in.

Installation views of Luke Murphy Industrial Incandescent

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HonkyTonk Lights, 2022
Steel studs, LED matrix panels, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
60 × 27 × 28 in.

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Widening Gyre, 2022
Steel studs, LED matrix panels, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
103 × 48 × 48 in.

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Industrial Incandescent, 2022
Wood beams, LED matrix panels, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
92 × 57 × 20 in.

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Homesick, 2022
P4 mm LED matrix panels, metal armature, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
23 × 18 × 1.625 in. (framed)

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Open Circuit, 2022
Steel armature, LED matrix panels, video driver hardware, software, power supplies, PC, code
120 × 20 × 4 in.

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Installation views of Luke Murphy Industrial Incandescent

Luke Murphy in the Studio, 2021, Filmed by Kate Geis / Resident Artist

Selected Works

Dream SpeakRachel Eulena Williams

ZzyzxChristina Sucgang

HomesickSadie Laska

Promised LightLuke Murphy

ReadersKiyoshi Tsuchiya

ComeCloseJoan Snyder

NocturnesAnke Weyer

Arms and the SeaKatherine Bradford

Objet OuttaKen Resseger

Last LandscapesGerald Ferguson

Leroy's LuncheonAzikiwe Mohammed

Frisson CityLee Relvas

Reassembler 3Brian Belott

A Ball is for ThrowingElizabeth McIntosh

Ambient MusicLee Mary Manning

TORSOAnnabeth Marks

BiscuitLyric Shen

Body ForthMatt Connors

A Cliff to ClimbRyan Preciado

Library of a DreamRobert Janitz

Gold GoldRJ Messineo

On ValentinesSpencer Lewis

Who is afraid of Natasha?Joanna Malinowska & CT Jasper

USMichael Mahalchick

TRANSFIGURATIONAurora Pellizzi

The Thick StreamGroup Exhibition

5 SeasonsJason Fox

Mother PaintingsKatherine Bradford

Ceramics and PrintsElisabeth Kley

Black Femme: Sovereign of WAP and the Virtual Realm curated by Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle

#VayaConDiosKatherine Bernhardt

DrawingsJason Fox

Heart, HeartAnke Weyer

Tracing MemoryRachel Eulena Williams

Rayos De SombraRobert Janitz

GorpTyson Reeder

EREHWONSadie Laska