Jennifer MurphyGrains Of Sand13 December - 24 January, 2026 | Clint Roenisch Gallery Inc.

To see a World in Grain of SandAnd Heaven in a Wild Flower,Hold Infinity in the palm of your handAnd Eternity in an hour – William Blake, Auguries of InnocenceCRG is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Jennifer Murphy (Cdn, b. 1974, lives Toronto). For more than twenty years Murphy has worked in collage, assemblage, and sculpture using upcycled and reclaimed materials. She examines the interconnectedness and interdependencies of the natural world, drawn to ideas around ecological mourning and rehabilitation.Murphy writes, "For the exhibition Grains of Sand I have paired collage made from photographic images found in used books with elements from nature to reflect on our current world full of converging emergencies including the rise of fascism, disinformation, war and forced displacement, grave inequality, resource depletion, and the climate disaster, which are all exacerbated by colonial, capitalistic, and extractive forces. Through the lens of the polycrisis and the climate emergency I have been examining the interconnectedness and interdependence of these crises, the natural world, and each other as we face an uncertain and precarious future where the collective must prevail over the individual.  My research has led me to investigate and make connections to the persistent resilience of rewilding at damaged ecological sites in the aftermath of war, environmental plunder and destruction such as Hiroshima, Chernobyl, the Cyprus Green Line, the Korean DMZ, Zone Rouge and Fukushima, the history of solidarity, its potential and connection to the sacred, and the power of empathy in the photography of Dorothy Lange, Tina Modotti, and Janina Mierzecka each of whom documented injustice and brought dignity to their subjects during an earlier period of crisis in the early twentieth century. In my new works I hope to highlight our role and responsibility to the world’s fragile ecosystems and one another by harnessing an attentiveness through beauty, levity and wonder. Through the urgency of our moment, I employed a series of constraints to my usual maximalist approach to collage. I pared down my process, using minimal images and components while including images of hands and human connection to convey the tenderness and wonder that can be found in all of life's interdependencies. To navigate and survive our world today and to grasp these complex interconnections inherent to it we must embrace solidarity, empathy, wonder, and a radical persistent resilience to imagine a more caring, collective future."