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The Daily Tar Heel

Black and white art evokes colorful feelings

It started when he was 6 years old. After receiving a set of red, blue and yellow paints as a gift from his mother, artist Murry Handler was hooked on art. He claims he hasn’t put down the paintbrush since then.

Now, he is an internationally exhibited artist who has shown at places such as the Agora Gallery in New York City, the Marziart International Galerie in Hamburg, Germany, the North Carolina Museum of Art and, now, the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill.

Handler is doing a solo show at the Horace Williams House, run by Preservation Chapel Hill. The show features black and white art with strong, bold strokes that evoke powerful emotions.

“Black and white eliminates one thing — I don’t have to think about color,” Handler said. “If I want to get a message across, and get the message across quickly, I do it in black and white and I don’t have to feel whether this color will go well here or there.”

Nerys Levy, co-chairwoman of the arts committee for Preservation Chapel Hill, said that Handler’s work was chosen because of his proven excellence and because his work stood out.

“His work is well known, and it’s significantly different because he is a minimalist artist, and he uses economy of color, line and form, and also a limited palate,” Levy said.

The arts committee, which is comprised of professional artists and is run on a voluntary basis, looks for work that is authentic and significant in its particular field. They feature during nine exhibits of different mediums that run throughout the year.

Jenny Blazing, arts committee member and liaison between the Horace Williams House, seconded the praise toward Handler.

“I think his work is very bold, yet tasteful, and I think that it has something to offer people of all different artistic tastes,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for people to discover Murry, as well as for his dedicated patrons to see a new twist on his work.”

Handler’s original paintings are inspired by a unique process. While working on a painting, Handler rises at 4 or 5 a.m. to a dream-like state, during which he dreams of painting. Sometimes, he does this for weeks on end before a painting is complete in his mind. When he fully awakens, he copies what he imagined.

Once the paintings match his imagination, Handler said he is often still unsatisfied.

“I usually work with four or five paintings around me on the walls that seem to be finished, but they’re not finished for me,” he said. “So while I’m working on another one — sometimes weeks, sometimes many months — I look over at the same painting that I’ve been looking at for many months and suddenly realize what I need to do to finish it and wonder why I didn’t know that in the beginning.”

His attention to detail and drive for perfection are what makes his work so powerful. While he’s not using the red, blue and yellow paints in this exhibition, Handler is applying the same love for the craft that he felt as a child.

“Murray Handler just has a wealth of enthusiasm, experience, expertise and has just been a joy to work with and get to know,” Blazing said.

arts@dailytarheel.com

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