The current drawings of Christopher Murphy are for the most part unassuming and quiet. Only occasionally do they mesmerize through dramaturgy. Some appeal through inversions, others through thinly populated landscapes, which recall the recurrent theme in American literature of man in relationship to nature. To the same deceptive extent as Murphy’s drawings appear like photographs, his fictitious scenarios appear real. Thus, situations occur that haven’t happened yet and may never happen in the real landscapes in which they’re placed. At the same time, they evoke images of natural catastrophes, such as wildfires and floods. Compared to Murphy’s last exhibition at Schlesinger, his new show “Ebb” is more unsettling. This time he portrays human beings in miniature form, depicting them under great external tensions and not as they’re relaxing at a pool or at the ocean.

“Ebb” consists of fifteen medium size photorealistic drawings based on photos from Murphy’s travels, family album pictures, or estate sales. Yet Murphy’s drawings recontextualize his source material into uncanny narratives, making them differ considerably from other works that use family photos, portraits or documentary photography—think for example of works by Gerhard Richter and Chuck Close. The figures in Lucky Strike (all works 2018) are seen standing at the edges of the roof of an urban building gazing at a huge smoke cloud, which percolates through the area with the same urgency as a tsunami wave. This is the first image one sees on entering the gallery. Several other images in which smoke plays a central role hang in the gallery’s rear exhibit room. However, in them the smoke hovers over vegetation, not buildings, changing our perception of the smoke itself. Hanging directly across from Lucky Strike, the 30 x 40” drawing Quake is one of his more peaceful images. The title contradicts the calmness radiated by the drawing. It shows three men gathering in front of a little hut, surrounded by tall trees with a white bark with their backs turned away from the viewer staring into the thicket. It is but one image of many that provoke a sense of mystery.

Among the main images is Chasm, which depicts a woman standing on a tall cliff across from two men on a bluff. Between them lies an abyss. When we look more closely, there’s also a man in a boat at the bottom of the cliff. What is he doing there? Is he leaving, or arriving? In Awen, a group of people gathers for what may be a religious event. This drawing recalls Renaissance paintings, such as Sandro Botticelli’s A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts or Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana.

John Tottenham, Everything Is Falling Apart According To Plan (2018), pen and ink on paper, courtesy Lora Schlesinger Gallery.

The exhibit “Ebb” is shown alongside drawings by writer and poet John Tottenham (Artillery’s poetry editor), which both complement and offset the dramatics of Murphy’s work with piercing bleakness and mordant wit. Overall the exhibit succeeds because of its play between reality and fiction and the integration of the mechanisms of the subconscious mind.