Oscar Murillo, South London Gallery

This autumn the South London Gallery hosts the first major UK solo exhibition of one of the hottest young talents in today’s art world. How hot? Well, Colombian-born Oscar Murillo, a 27-year-old who has lived in London since the age of 10, sold a painting at Christie’s in June of this year for £253,875 – a particularly extraordinary figure given that Christie’s specialists expected it to make just £20,000–£30,000.

Hype has been building around Murillo for a while, with rumours circulating about a possible big career move and art- supremo Larry Gagosian’s name never far away. It all came to a head in early September, however, when blue-chip gallery David Zwirner announced that Murillo was to be represented by them in New York. He seems to be destined for art superstardom at an age when other artists are barely in their ‘early career’. 

Following the format of his exhibition at the Carlos/Ishikawa earlier this year, Murillo’s new show imbues the gallery space with the feeling of a studio. Paintings are laid against walls, on tables or on the floor to walk over, and sculptures sit stacked on paintings in chaotic, precarious equilibrium. This is not an exhibition of paintings so much as an exhibition of Murillo himself. No single ‘painting’ can be singled out in isolation from the rest; everything in this show works in tandem with, and as part of, the thing next to it. From biros, plaster, canvas, bits of packaging, dirt, bits of cardboard and metal – all are jammed together, scrawled and sprayed over rather than painted.

As collectors queue up to buy his work before it becomes very, very expensive, Murillo’s concern has become more and more about the commodification of his own self in the art world. Ironically, if somewhat typical for the art world, this self-awareness has made him all the more sought-after. A must-see for art-lovers who like to be in the know, catch this show before it closes on 1 December.

FREE event

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