The Kendal Murray donation perfectly reflects several areas of Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery’s Collection Policy. The Gallery and its Collections Storage Room is small and consequently ‘strategic collection’ directs its future. The limited space available means that small, high calibre works by mid-career artists are especially welcome. (1. ‘Overview’ Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery Collection Policy, p.1.) That the works are attractive, well executed and whimsical without being mawkish adds to their appeal. I make particular note of this as the Gallery also collects still life paintings, which are, unsurprisingly read by the public as morbid. Murray’s work presents a pleasing counterpoint to the overall still life collection. The Collection principles spelled out in the Gallery’s Collection Policy prioritise ‘excellence, contemporaneity, innovation, high aesthetic quality, relevance and value’. These are easily recognised in Murray’s work. Each work will ‘enhance the aesthetic and cultural value of the Collection’ as per Collection Policy Objective point 4, p.2.)

Murray has been exhibited three times at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and audiences are always intrigued by her work. The three works proposed as part of the cultural gifts program being Full Moon, Signature Tune, Fun Run, Dry Run, and Zoom, Consume, Boom were widely admired by our audiences and will be received well by them in the future. Each works has relevance for Coffs Harbour, though the works were conceived and made elsewhere. 

Full Moon, Signature Tune is a well-executed work referencing reading and its pleasures. This was not lost on our audiences as the Gallery is co-located with Coffs Harbour Regional Library. It is a work that references and celebrates that relationship. Fun Run, Dry Run similarly speaks to our audiences with its allusion to running which is a very popular pastime and tourist attractor for the region. The work is, despite its small size, robust and carefully made. This work, like Zoom, Consume, Boom is typical of the artist’s investigation of three dimensional miniatures. Here Murray makes a statement regarding consumerism that is very apt for Coffs Harbour audiences, who are witnessing the unprecedented development of shopping malls across the region and the relentless marketing of consumer goods as a part of this ‘culture’.

[Written by Deb Wall, 11 July 2015]

Mixed media assemblage, urban scene formed by books (2 large and 3 smaller) and buildings (stacked wooden blocks spelling MOON) with 29 small figures illiutrating relaxation outdoors. Includes 2 marbles and 2 trees.