“We breathe in, We breathe out” is Melissa Murray’s new series of works on paper, realized through two separate lines of inquiry; large paintings that represent consecutive moments in a timeline and a series of small works that capture singular moments throughout the day. For Murray, the work is about making new spaces where there is no room, facing death while creating life, losing the self through transformation. They are about fear and the unknown.


“We breathe in, We breathe out” presents deeply personal, metaphorical environments that represent moments in Murray’s life. Domestic interiors and exteriors create an imagined space that anthropomorphizes its content. She produces narratives that, for her, are more self-portrait than still life. The work is modeled as a literary outline, presenting an overlying theme that gradually dissects into smaller moments, creating an environment of what she describes as "emotional effect". She cites Maggie Nelson’s essays and the poetry of Mary Oliver and Anne Sexton as profoundly influential to her practice.


For Murray, the structure and landscape in this series of paintings stem from her small black cottage in the Catskill Mountains. “The house represents a living breathing entity in my life where I store emotionally charged objects; old memories are activated when I visit and upon leaving, their stories are paused in the interim.” Pulling narratives from this experience, the work, she says, expresses a gratitude for the richness time affords her. Murray sees her “black house” in connection with Charles Burchfield’s cabin, “a vessel of devotion for a crescent moon to shine on”.


The artist draws a parallel with photographer Sally Mann’s adoration for her family farm which resonates with her own sentiments for the land she has made home; “I watch my child grow and flourish here and consider the fragile, fleeting nature of time and the loss that will inevitably follow". “We breathe in, We breathe out” expresses an hom