Los Angeles-based artist Gwynn Murrill (born 1942) is best known for her sculptures of animals. At once contemporary and timeless, her works show a fine balance between formal simplification and observation from nature. Since the early 1970s, her practice has been rooted in the close study of the landscape’s inhabitants around her home in Southern California, as well as in photographs, memory, and imagination. In wood, marble, and bronze, Murrill’s sculptures reduce a naturally detailed visual form to its most basic line and volume. With an elegant and playful hand, she both identifies a particular animal and imbues them with life. Her human figures appear equally streamlined and energetic. When viewed together, the relationship between both subjects suggests a primal link between animal and human.

Curated by Elizabeth Rooklidge, the exhibition features the full scope of Murrill’s practice, from subject, to material, to experiments in scale. With twenty works, Sculptures by Gwynn Murrill is the first exhibition to present work from the artist’s entire career, spanning the early 1970s to today.