(born in La Paila, Columbia in 1986, lives and works in London)
Untitled 1 (anomalies from a candy factory), 2013/2014, 11-part installation, stainless steel crates, concrete, timber, fabric, rubber, screen-printed stickers, clay, 122.5 x 52 x 72 cm and 27 x 35.5 x 51.2 cm, (11), (PS)

The work is registered in the artist’s archive with the no. MUROS0138.

Provenance:
David Zwirner Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Switzerland

“I grew up with tactile materials, building things and being tactile with objects. When I came to London there was an astonishing cultural displacement. Everything was completely different“
(Oscar Murillo in conversation with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, in: Exhibition Catalogue, The Rubell Family Collection, Oscar Murillo: Work, 2012-13, p. 40).

“My studio is a cradle of dust and dirt, of pollution. I don’t tidy up at the end of each production process. It’s all very much on purpose; it’s a continuous process, a machine of which I’m the catalyst. Things get moved around, I step on them, and they get contaminated. It’s not about leaving traces, it’s about letting things mature on their own“

(Oscar Murillo, quoted in L. Russell, ‘Oscar Murillo’, in: BOMB Magazine, bombmagazine. org/article/6921/oscar-murillo [accessed 31 March 2016]).

“My father was a mechanic in a sugar cane factory and my mother worked for a candy factory: we had a sweet life!“

(Oscar Murillo, quoted in Karen Wright, ‘In the studio with Oscar Murillo, artist’, in: Independent, www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/in-the-studio-with-oscar-murillo-artist-8803147.html [accessed 31 March 2016]).

“Untitled 1 (anomalies from a candy factory)“, a sculpture created in 2013/2014, consists of a number of stacked fruit crates similar to those used in markets and grocery stores around the world, though these are made from polished stainless steel. One stack of crates is positioned on one of the wooden podiums Oscar Murillo uses in his studio when working on his paintings. The sculpture also features concrete spheres that contain fragments from the artist’s studio, debris from the continuous creative process. Unglazed ceramic casts, slightly reminiscent of coconuts, are combined with the fruit crates and wooden pallet to create associations with everyday commerce and enhance the installation character of the work. Like in his pictures, video art and performance art, Murillo often uses symbols and signs in his sculptures that are commonly understood around the world. Distance, displacement and migration are key elements of Murillo’s artistic statement, making his work more socially relevant and topical than ever.
The sculpture here offered at auction is a beautiful example of this and represents a significant component of a growing oeuvre that underpins Murillo’s current position as one of the most respected young artists of his generation. His multidisciplinary work is characterised by the constant analysis of discourses about ethnology, trade and globalisation. This focus is based on the artist’s intercultural heritage. Born in Columbia in a small mountain village in 1986, at the age of ten Murillo emigrated to East London with his family. He completed his university studies at the renowned Royal College of Art in London in 2012. In that same year, he was invited to conduct a live performance at the Serpentine Gallery, the co-director of which, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, is one of his staunch supporters. Murillo’s first solo exhibition in an institution took place at the South London Gallery in 2013. David Zwirner, one of the most important contemporary galleries in the world, has represented Oscar Murillo since then. Within the framework of the group exhibition “The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World“ Murillo exhibited his works at the MoMA in New York in 2015. Moreover, his works are represented inter alia in the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin), the Rubell Family Collection (Miami) and the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent.