Ben Murray’s paintings engage in an ongoing dialogue between memory, material, and time, where past and present remain in constant transformation. Through richly layered compositions, his work reconstructs the act of remembering—how fleeting moments, personal histories, and lived spaces are never fixed but always shifting. Murray’s return to Gary, Indiana, where he spent his childhood, has reignited his engagement with place as both a personal archive and a site of reinvention. His paintings distill the essence of industrial landscapes, shifting light over water, and fleeting moments into vivid abstractions. Rooted in gesture as a record of presence, his approach to abstraction mirrors the fluidity of memory itself. As Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception suggests, seeing is not a passive act but an embodied negotiation with the world—a principle Murray extends into his compositions, inviting an active encounter with his work.
Murray (b. 1977, Ainsworth, IN) earned his MFA from University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013 and his BFA from Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis in 2011. Murray is currently the Adjunct Assistant Professor, Indiana University Northwest, Gary, IN. Solo exhibitions include Moremen Gallery, Louisville, KY, (2023), moniquemeloche Gallery, Chicago, IL, (2021); Christopher West Presents, Indiana, IN, (2019); Sidecar Gallery, and Hammond, IN, (2018); Flux Space. Notable group exhibitions include moniquemeloche presents... Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN, (2022); Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, (2019); Seattle Freezer, Seattle, WA, (2019); University of Illinois at Chicago Galleries, Chicago, IL, (2018); Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, (2015); Kaplain A.I.R. Exhibitions, NWU, Evanston, IL, (2013). Murray was the 2014 Artist in Residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska and a 2012 MFA Resident at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan. He currently lives and works in Gary, IN.