Unfinished thinking: Paintings and Social Maps

Oscar Murillo, whose multidisciplinary practice investigates migration, labor, cultural exchange, geography, and collective experience. Born in La Paila, Colombia, in 1986, Murillo spent part of his childhood in London before developing an international practice shaped by movement between different social, political, and geographic contexts. Painting remains central to Murillo’s work. His compositions are built through processes of layering, marking, folding, staining, writing, and accumulation, allowing the physical surface to retain evidence of production and movement. Across his broader practice, Murillo has worked with materials including oil paint, oil stick, graphite, spray paint, natural pigments, dirt, and debris, often treating the canvas as a record of activity rather than a polished or static image. In Unfinished thinking: Paintings and Social Maps, Murillo approaches painting as a form of mapping. Rather than representing geography through conventional borders or cartographic systems, his works register the movement of people, labor, memory, and cultural experience. References to places including Colombia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Germany create a network of locations connected through migration, economic systems, travel, and shared histories. David Zwirner Paris, 108 Rue Vieille du Temple, 75003 Paris, France. Runs through December 23, 2026.