Óscar Murillo (La Paila, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, 1986) is a contemporary Colombian artist whose practice explores themes of migration, globalization, labor, cultural identity, and collective memory. His work encompasses painting, installation, performance, and collaborative projects, establishing connections between his Colombian background and his life in the United Kingdom.

Murillo was born in La Paila and moved with his family to London during his childhood. He studied Fine Art at the University of Westminster and later received his MFA from the Royal College of Art in London in 2012. His experiences between Colombia and the United Kingdom, as well as his engagement with different social and working environments, became fundamental elements of his artistic practice.

Óscar Murillo’s artworks are characterized by an intense exploration of materiality. In his paintings, he uses layers of oil paint, graphite, pigments, words, and fragments of fabric to create surfaces that register processes of movement, accumulation, and transformation. His practice extends beyond painting to incorporate spaces, objects, and collective actions connected to social, economic, and cultural issues.

One of his best-known projects is Frequencies, initiated in 2013. The project places raw canvases over school desks to record drawings, words, marks, and gestures made by students in different parts of the world. Conceived as an evolving collective archive, Frequencies explores education, youth expression, social differences, and connections between global communities.

Other projects by Murillo directly address relationships between labor and production. In A Mercantile Novel (2014), for example, he transformed an exhibition space into a functioning chocolate factory, establishing connections with the industrial history of his hometown in Colombia and global systems of production.

In 2019, Óscar Murillo received the Turner Prize alongside Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, and Tai Shani, who were collectively awarded the prize. His work has been presented at major international institutions and is held in collections including those of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and Tate.

His multidisciplinary practice and sustained exploration of migration, labor, and social structures have established Óscar Murillo as a prominent figure in contemporary Colombian and Latin American art.