Graeme Murray was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1963. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1981-86, where he gained a 1st Class Honours BA and Diploma of Post-Graduate Studies (with Distinction). After graduating, he received numerous awards, including the Classon-Harvie Bursary, Mary Rose Bequest and John Kinross-Travelling Scholarship (RSA),Florence, Italy. In 1988, Murray received a Scottish Arts Council Award. Murray was the youngest artist selected for the prestigious, ‘Britain in Vienna Festival' in 1986, opened by HRH Prince Charles and Lady Diana. The artist has exhibited regularly in both solo and invited, group exhibitions, including, The Edinburgh Printmakers, The Smith Biennial, Stirling, Inverclyde Biennial, Compass Gallery, Glasgow, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen, Alinea Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus, ‘New Art From Scotland’, Warwick Arts Trust, Pimlico, London, Academy of the Art Institute of San Francisco, USA and The Contemporary Arts Society, Covent Garden, London. In 1991 he travelled to the Shetland Islands as Artist In Residence, for the Scottish Arts Council. During this time he developed themes influenced by celtic folklore and the Scottish literary tradition. These were resonances which would later appear in two large exhibitions in Cyprus. In 1994, the artist moved to a remote studio in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, where Byzantine influences further shaped the artist’s oeuvre. Murray returned to Scotland in 1998, with recent exhibitions in Oxfordshire, and regularly at the Pittenweem Arts Festival. His paintings form part of collections in the City of Edinburgh, Shetland Arts Trust, RSA and in private collections in Europe, Singapore and the USA. Please visit www.graeme-murray.co.uk
I'd like to meet:
All with poetry in their soul
Music:
Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Kelly Jo Phelps, Sooliman Rogers Rogie, Ali Farka Touré, The Waterboys, Capercaillie, Shoogleniffty, Afro Celtic Sound System, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan, Chet Baker, Danu, The Devine Comedy, Hothouse Flowers, John Martyn, Dick Gaughan, Martin Stephenson, Paul Weller, Tom Waits
Movies:
The Dead (John Houston), L'enfant Savage (Francois Truffant), Down by Law, Key Largo, Big Fish, Local Hero, The Quiet Man, Harvey, Amelie, Betty Blue, Sexy Beast, The Road to Perdition, Paper Moon, The Third Man, Throne of Blood (Akira Kurasawa)
Books:
No Great Mischief, Alistair Macleod /The Sea Kingdoms: The History of Celtic Britain and Ireland - Alistair Moffat / Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland, Neal Ascherson / The Marriage of Cadmus and Marmony, Roberto Calasso / The Silver Bough, F. Marian McNeill / A Scots Quair, Lewis Grassic Gibbon/ Artic Dreams, Barry Lopez / The Orkneyinga Saga /The Savage God, A Study of Suicide, A. Alvarez / Too Loud A Solitude. Bohumil Hrabal
Heroes:
Robert Burns, W.B. Yeats, Sorley Maclean, Fra Angelico, Vermeer, Velazquez, William Blake, Albert Ryder, Ensor, Balthus, Picasso, Matisse, Goya, Matisse, Botticelli, Giorgione, Ghirlandaio, Giovanni Bellini
