The Legend of Okjökull is a large scale painting, 72 x 120 inches (183 x 305 cm). Okjökull was an glacier in Iceland, but declared dead in 2014 by Oddur Sigurosson, one of the country’s leading glaciologists. The site is now marked with a plaque that warns “In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path.” It is Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change. The painting is based on NASA’s September 14, 1986 arial photograph of the glacier. My goal was to turn the image into a sign of warning and a monument to the glaciers’ past majesty. With this in mind, I selected the color yellow to signify instability, caution, and sickness, while painting the Okjökull purple, a majestic color of nobility, dignity, and grandeur. 

The Legend Of Okjökull

This works relates color to the role of neurotransmitters that regulate our moods. Noradrenaline is a transmitter similar to adrenaline that increases levels of alertness, priming us for action.

Noradrenaline Dilation

Inertial Resistance in Red and Yellow

This painting depicts a semiconductor and the island of Taiwan. Today this small island manufactures 90% of the most advanced semiconductors in the world and is a geopolitical hotspot. Recent supply chain shortages have marked the beginning of a shift away from globalization.

Insufficient Capacity

Installation view at MAINSITE Contemporary Art. The painting is a mashup of satellite documentation of the Fujiwhara Effect and decadal hurricane oscillation metrics in the form of a graph. Combined the imagery simultaneously demonstrates the massive destructive power of the double hurricane and increased hurricane activity over time, which is amplifies by the long narrow canvas. Colors are also utilized too impart a sense of warning on the viewer. My intention as a painter is to also make a painting that contains visual motion, compelling rhythms, and that is tempered with an engaging aesthetic. The complex interaction of aesthetics and message reflects our relationship with climate change.

Fujiwhara Effect

In this work I integrate single use plastic bags into the painting surface. The bags introduce a new contextual dimension to these paintings and serve as an opportunity discuss one of our modern challenges. For example, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It also takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. But these bags photo-degrade, becoming micro-plastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute. I look for ways to combine this non-traditional painting material with paint to create compelling metaphor. Color is used with symbolic consideration. By combining material and color through painting, I’m able to tell a contemporary story through the tradition of painting. 

The Problem With Plastic No.4

In this work I integrate single use plastic bags into the painting surface. The bags introduce a new contextual dimension to these paintings and serve as an opportunity discuss one of our modern challenges. For example, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It also takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. But these bags photo-degrade, becoming micro-plastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute. I look for ways to combine this non-traditional painting material with paint to create compelling metaphor. Color, like yellow, are used with symbolic consideration. Yellow is a color of contradictions. It can suggest happiness, positivity, and loyalty. But it is also a sign of instability, caution, and sickness. By combining material and color through painting, I’m able to tell a contemporary story through the tradition of painting. 


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Benjamin Murphy