Murry Robertson

UNCHARTED 1985–2025: PRINTMAKING, MAPS & TRAVELS

Murray Robertson’s major retrospective exhibition Uncharted 1985-2025 was significantly supported by funding from the James Rae Trust, which contributed directly to the production of a fully illustrated catalogue accompanying the show.

The publication documents over 40 years of Robertson’s practice, tracing the development of his work through the diverse places and environments that have shaped it. Drawing on his long-standing role at Glasgow Print Studio, where he has worked as both a practicing artist and Master Printer. The catalogue highlights how his engagement with international residencies and exchanges has informed a visual language rooted in mapping, travel, and environmental enquiry.

Navigators Dream, 1992

Hand-coloured etching

At the core of Robertson’s work is an ongoing enquiry into nature and the environment, engaging with themes that resonate with current scientific and cultural concerns. His practice explores the ways knowledge is constructed and understood, often contrasting cultural perceptions and misconceptions through structured visual systems. These take form as layered, diagrammatic compositions—visual matrices that aim to communicate complex patterns of meaning.

His imagery develops through a process of experience, documentation, and interpretation, combining traditional techniques such as drawing and painting with digital methods including 3D computer modelling. Influenced by sources ranging from natural history textbooks and cartography to scientific imagery and cultural iconography, Robertson’s work constructs a rich visual dialogue between observation, place, and understanding.

Prima Materia, 1996

Hand-coloured etching

Flat Earth Theory No.1, 1993

Hand-coloured etching

Certain Errors in Navigation, 1996

Hand-coloured lithograph