The Glass Key

Conor Murgatroyd

Curator: Hongshuo Liu

7th Feb – 22nd Feb 2025
PV 7th Feb 18:00 – 20:30

Conor Murgatroyd, The Robber Baron (The Man Who Has Become Different), 2024-2025
200 x 300cm, Enamel on canvas

I hope to fully present the process through which I understand his work, so as to help all viewers gain a deeper engagement.

I still believe that when writing about an artist, it is crucial to find the “door” within their work. The number of such “doors” may vary, but at least one must be opened. We must clearly understand what we are facing.

A few days after talking with him in his studio, I looked at the photos of his works on my phone and was reminded of a line from the film “Los Versos del Olvido”:

“Forgetting in forgetfulness, this is true oblivion.”

His studio is filled with many objects passed down through his family, and these same objects repeatedly appear in his paintings. It is an almost magical experience—standing beside Conor, looking at these objects, seeing the same people and things depicted in his paintings, and listening to the stories behind them. The timeline between past and present becomes blurred.

In the early stages of Conor’s art education, overly theoretical and abstract content offered him no concrete meaning; instead, it left him lost. It was only through painting that he found a way to express his inner world. His works are manifestations of his inner landscape, deeply rooted in his past, familial heritage, and cultural influences. Through his visual language, he seeks to give form to his subconscious and thoughts, creating a dialogue with the “soul” of his past and present. At the same time, this might offer an approach to understanding the seemingly illogical collages in his paintings. He once felt that no part of the world resonated with him except for his past. He wrote about how his points of reference were long lost within himself, only to gradually become clearer over time. He views the world in his own way, keeping a deliberate distance from the masses of society and their anger, jealousy and hatred of “the different”.

For this new series of works, the artist himself has named the exhibition “The Glass Key”. He sees the glass key as a fragile yet charming tool—capable of withstanding pressure and perhaps succeeding for a few attempts, but inevitably breaking and becoming useless, forcing us to seek another key. Tender , yet infinitely beautiful. He believes this is a common occurrence in many fields, particularly in the study of art, philosophy, or history. Just as we are about to grasp a profound concept, the possibility is snatched away at the last moment.

“Observing with the eyes and perceiving with the heart” is his method, while “the glass key” is his tool for redemption. The act of creating and using “the glass key” is his wisdom in understanding impermanence.

Through his paintings, he fights against oblivion, preserving the traces of lives and moments that once existed.

Because he has embraced impermanence, he finds “the glass key” extraordinarily beautiful; and because he dares to keep using that key, he demonstrates the courage to confront everything in his own way—as an artist, a father, and a human being.

To defy oblivion, one must create.

 

Text by Hongshuo Liu

 

 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Courtesy of Yuki Ma

Conor Murgatroyd (b.1995, Bradford, West Yorkshire). He received his BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art in 2016 and was awarded the Knights of The Round Table award shortly after. His works are manifestations of his inner landscape, deeply rooted in his past, familial heritage, and cultural influences. Through his visual language, he seeks to give form to his subconscious and thoughts, creating a dialogue with the “soul” of his past and present. The poetic worlds that he creates are a direct response to the intellectual fusion of images, personal and external. His paintings act as a stage which brings together the myriad of characters and objects he has come into contact with; both imaged and lived. In Murgatroyd’s work he draws attention, not to the external reality as such, but rather to the unfathomable mystery behind this.

Exhibitions&Art fair include: Showstopper, Saatchi gallery, London 2022; Memory of a voyage, Chen Projects, Taibei, 2023; Tick tock tick tock tick tock, Woaw gallery, Hong Kong, 2024; Art Singapore Festival, Whitestone Gallery, 2025;

Collections: Steve Cohen collection; Yageo foundation