Hidden in the shadows of the waking world, abandoned buildings offer mute testimonial to our country's past. Matthew Murray has entered abandoned structures since he was a child, fascinated by the fragments of people's lives left behind. Four years ago, Murray began a project to preserve such memories and thereby give voice to the voiceless. Through photography he endeavored to preserve the ethereal grace and stillness that saturates such environments and to give a sense of the awe-inspiring beauty and profound sorrow that remains after life has ceased and only echoes remain.

Multiple and disparate images, graphics, scribbled lists and notations all vie with one another on the pages of Thurman's handmade notebooks: the gritty, the profane, the refined, the referential, all subjects are reduced to equal status on these worn-thin working pages. They are modern diptych-miniatures (mixed media on wood), and with their movable pages and changing compositions, are able to combine with elements of many styles (trompe l'oeil, fuguration, expressionism, minimalism, constructivism, to name a few...) in defining the artist's personal narrative.

From the artist statement: "Since the beginning I have always explored the world of "make believe" and in so doing I have been led away from the real world to enter doors to the unknown where the "non object" would entice, inform and grow. After this 40+ year search... it is now clear... my visual finds could only have been born in an era of hope and tolerance which is here to be shared".

Intersecting angles of acrylic coated canvas reveal illusionary and temporal spaces. Each seemingly layered painting hints at dimensions hovering outside our visible, tangible realm. Saturated fields of opaque red, blue and black are cunningly contrasted with translucent washes of white and shadowed grey. The result - abstractions with an unexpected depth of shadow, transparency and reflection.