Greg Murdock is an artist best known for his fresco-like mixed media works that elegantly explore surface, space and form with references to both external and internal worlds. His engaging and sometimes haunting imagery show a mature artist well in control of his medium. During the past 25 years he has established himself as an outstanding contemporary artist with a stellar reputation across Canada and in the United States.

Gregory Wayne Murdock was born January 8, 1954 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His early home life provided a nurturing environment for the young artist. His mother was an amateur painter who encouraged her son to explore his talents and abilities and enrolled him in Saturday morning classes where he developed an affinity and love for creating images. While he took art throughout his schooling, he credits a trip to Europe following high school graduation for kindling his passion to become an artist. Seeing the masterworks of the Prado and Louvre “sealed the deal” for him.

When Greg returned from Europe, he enrolled in the faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Saskatchewan and studied ceramics, sculpture and drawing. Here he was influenced by the work of local artists and Canadian legends; David Gilhooly, Marilyn Levine, David Thauberger, Otto Rogers and Ernest Lindner and the personal development of line, surface and form began to etch its way into his soul. After three years of university life, wanderlust prevailed and took him to Mexico to study bronze at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel Allende. While in Mexico he was also profoundly influenced by the culture and architecture of the ancient pre-columbian civilization that he was able to explore when not engaged in the foundry.

In 1979 he left Mexico and came to Vancouver, BC to continue his studies at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. It was there under the influence of instructor Ray Arnatt that he expanded his architectural vision and imagery, began to create installations and discovered the potential of “spackle” as a medium and surface to explore in both his two and three dimensional his works. He graduated with honours in 1981.

Murdock credits the work of artists JMW Turner, Cy Twombly, Donald Judd and Jasper Johns for informing and inspiring his artistic quest, but it is his experience and travels that have had the greatest influence on the development of his highly personal and unique work over the years. He is a disciplined, prolific and successful artist who has exhibited annually since 1981. His work can be found in numerous private, corporate and public collections in Canada and the United States including the Vancouver Art Gallery, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Musee d’art Contemporain, Montreal, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Artists for Kids Gallery in North Vancouver. Greg Murdock currently lives and works in Vancouver, BC.