How can I buy a work by James Austin Murray?

Bruno David Gallery handles the sale of available works by James Austin Murray. For prices and availability, email info@brunodavidgallery.com or call +1 314 696 2377.

Where can I see work by James Austin Murray in person?

At Bruno David Gallery, 7513 Forsyth Boulevard, Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, during public hours or by appointment.

What does James Austin Murray make?

Paintings, mainly in ivory black oil paint, about the paint and the light that reflects on and in it, as well as the Undercolor series and earth paintings for which he makes the paint from earth.

Where is James Austin Murray based?

James Austin Murray lives and works in New York, New York. He has a studio in the Hudson Valley.

Has James Austin Murray had an exhibition at Bruno David Gallery?

Yes. Undercolor (4 April to 12 July 2025) is one of his exhibitions at the gallery. Catalogues can be read in the gallery’s Publications library at brunodavidgallery.com/publications.

James Austin Murray

James Austin Murray (born 1969) is a New York-based painter who works mainly in ivory black oil paint. His black paintings are about the paint and the light that reflects on and in it; spend time with one and you find yourself thinking about the light in the room.

Looking at them is a little like searching a dark room with a flashlight that lights only the few inches in front of it: they read as landscapes you could walk into, at once disconcerting and seductive. As Murray puts it, “Sometimes the dark is where you find the best surprises.” Alongside the black paintings he has made the Undercolor series and, more recently, earth paintings, for which he makes the paint from earth.

Murray graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1992 and later taught there. For 11 years he was a New York City firefighter, working in the South Bronx, Harlem, the West Village and the Lower East Side, and he was serving at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He has said that he paints as a way of justifying his life after that day.

His work has been shown at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University and in solo and two-person exhibitions at Lyons Wier Gallery, New York; Opera Gallery, Monaco; REDSEA Gallery, Singapore; and Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho. Undercolor (2025) was his fourth solo exhibition at Bruno David Gallery. He has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, through a Dedalus Foundation Fellowship, and at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. He lives and works in New York, with a studio in the Hudson Valley.

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