Underground River
Artist
Steve Murakishi
(American, born 1949)
Date1983
MediumOil on paper (diptych)
Dimensions28 × 82 in. (71.1 × 208.3 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Object numberUAC2788
DescriptionThis massive diptych, a work of art made on two conjoined wooden panels, measures nearly seven feet long. Each panel split into two distinct images within themselves, all of which are made with oil paints on paper to give the colors such intense vibrancy. Each of these distinct areas of the painting gives a sense of a different color and variation on the similar curving flow of the paint. As the piece moves from the warm tones of red and yellow into the cooler blues and seaglass greens, there is a sense of this underground river starting above in the sunlight as it moves into the colder spaces and settles into its flow underneath the rocks and earth.Steve Murakishi is a painter, printmaker, and writer who studied sculpture at Michigan State University before getting his M.A. in printmaking at Central Michigan university and his M.F.A in printmaking at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His work can be found in several prominent public collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the collection of nearly every public university in Michigan. Today he works as an independent artist and curator out of Boston, Massachusetts.
Written by Alex Heath
