Murray Clarke (b. 1992, United Kingdom) lives and works in London, England. The artist earned his MFA in Fine Art from Kingston School of Art in 2019.
Clarke’s work explores the seductive language of consumer culture, interrogating how material goods—particularly clothing and textiles—are imbued with value, desire, and status. Through meticulously rendered, hyper-real paintings, he transforms familiar garments into objects of heightened allure: the plush weave of a sweater, the sharp fold of an Oxford shirt, the sheen of silk. By enlarging these details and withholding the figure, Clarke creates a space for viewers to project their own narratives, revealing the subtle ways fashion and art are commodified within a capitalist economy.
Mirroring the strategies of advertising, Clarke challenges the notion of painting as a singular, unrepeatable creation. Each iteration moves further from its original source, blurring the line between intimacy and detachment, surface and depth. This quiet dissonance invites reflection on how we perceive and assign worth.
Rich with art-historical resonance, Clarke’s practice draws on minimalism, conceptualism, portraiture, still life, and optical art, yet reimagines these traditions with formal precision, contemporary wit, and a playful subversion of the subjects he chooses. His paintings oscillate between critique and seduction, holding the space where beauty meets commerce.