The Oasis, 48 x 36 inches, 2007

Oil Painting on Canvas

Lawn Bowlers, 38 x 25 inches, 2000

Graphite Drawing on Paper

MARILYN  MURPHY

Wind Mischief

NEW PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS

Exhibition Dates:  March 14 – April 12, 2008

Artist’s Reception:  Friday, March 14, 5:30 – 8:00 P.M.

Carl Hammer Gallery is pleased to present the masterfully crafted paintings and drawings of Marilyn Murphy in her first solo appearance here.  A member of the art faculty at Vanderbilt University since 1980, Murphy uses “middle America” as an ongoing reference in all of her work.  Rich in meaning and paradox, her use of fire, floods, tornados, and air borne bodies characterize her fascination with all things that fly and all things mechanical.  As such, the repeated use of images referencing her generation’s childhood skillfully exemplifies a psyche always having needed to know how and why things work. 

Murphy grew up in Tulsa Oklahoma, the epicenter of turbulent weather, or as she describes it “the buckle of the tornado belt.”  At first frightened, then, later, mesmerized by the power of nature’s violent moments, she uses the iconic images associated with the weather as “symbols of what’s happening in my life.”  “On a nice blue day a wall of black cloud would just come barreling in; there were dust storms and mesocyclones. . . wind, fire, and water can create remarkable drama for us, depending on our ability to control them. . .our technology is feeble in the face of strong colliding weather fronts.”  From these experiences of seeing Man interact with the extremities of weather, Murphy holds up her mirror to nature allowing us to see its parallel symbolism manifesting itself in the human psyche. 

Murphy’s control with the paintbrush is equaled only by her superb drawing technique. And her bewitchingly surrealistic drawings are all the more compelling due to their eerie, enigmatic, fifth dimensional story-telling effect.   Both reassuring yet unsettling, Murphy’s intriguing visual scenarios are magical in their improbability yet scorchingly insightful, challenging the viewer to rethink the reality of any given situation.

EDUCATION
1978 Master of Fine Arts, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

1972 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

SELECTED AWARDS and GRANTS
2004
Chancellor’s Award for Research, Vanderbilt University.
Award for Outstanding Artwork, Tulane Review of Art and Literature, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Research Scholar Grant, Toward Mid Career Survey, Vanderbilt University ($4300)

2003
Research Scholar Grant, Toward Catalog Publication, Vanderbilt University ($25,000)
Distinguished Faculty Award, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

2001
Honorable Mention, Puna Art Contemporary Art Center, Pahoa, Hawaii.

2000
University Research Council Grant, Vanderbilt University.

1996
National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Archive, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Tri Kappa Award, Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, Indiana, Juror: Nancy Hoffman.

1995
Merit Award, Water Tower Annual, Louisville Visual Art Association, Louisville, Kentucky.
Top Purchase Award, National Painting Competition, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville,TN. Jurors: Robert Ryman, Painter/Inge-Lise Eckmann, San Francisco MoMA ($10,000)
2 Purchase Awards, Parkside National Print Exhibition, University of WI, Kenosha, WI. Juror: Terry Allen, Artist.
Venture Fund Grant, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN ($10,000).

1991
First Place in 2-Dimensional category, “Patchwork of Many Lives,” Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama. Juror: Connie Butler, Curator, Artists Space, New York.
Purchase Award, Evansville Museum of Arts And Science, Evansville, Indiana.

1990
Fellowship, Southern Arts Federation ($5,000).

1988
Fellowship, TN Arts Commission, Juror: Lowery Sims, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY ($5000)

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2008

"Wind Mischief", Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL

2005
“San Francisco International Art Exposition,” Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA., and 2004
“AAF” Art Exhibition, New York, New York.
“Work of Art, Art of Work,” Fine Arts Building Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Hindsight: Inspired by the Past,” Afif Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2004
“Suspended Animation,” Mid-Career Survey, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
“Georgetown International Exhibition,” Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC
Solo show Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN, 1999, 1997, 1994, 1991, 1988, 1985, 1983.
“The Contemporary Art Fair,” Pier 92, New York, New York
“31st Annual Exhibition,” Masur Art Museum, Twin City Art Foundation, Monroe, Louisiana.

2003
“National Drawing Exhibition,” Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“Art on Paper,” Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, Maryland.
“Works on Paper,” Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, Award.
“Views of the Collection: Recent Acquisitions,” Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL
“A Century of Progress: 20th Century Painting in TN,” Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA

2002
Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, 106th Annual Exhibition, New York, New York
“What’s My Line?” The Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN

2001
“Red Clay Survey,” Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama.
“A Catalog of Winds,” Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. Solo show.
“The Best of Tennessee, Millennium Collection,” Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
International Exhibition, Puna Contemporary Art Center, Pahoa, Hawaii, Award, CD-rom.
Two-person Exhibition, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Ga.
“Firsts: the Personal & the Historical,” Bare Hands Gallery/Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham
National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC (since 1998)

2000
“A Catalog of Winds,” Solo Show, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
“Figurative Works 2000,” Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana.

1999
“Figuratively Speaking,” Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, NC.

1998
Solo Show, University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC. Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, Louisiana.

1997
The Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida.

1996
The National Academy of Design, New York, New York.
Seattle Artfair, Seattle, Washington.
The Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, Indiana.

1995
“Americas 2000,” Northwest Art Center, Minot State University, North Dakota.
New Regional Printmaking Invitational, Sarah Moody Gallery, University of AL, Tuscaloosa
“Dark Humor,” Plan B Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.

1994
San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, California.
University of Alabama, Solo Show, Huntsville, Alabama.

1993
Amos Eno Gallery, New York, New York.
“Drawing into the 90’s,” Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas, Juror: Neal Benezra, Chief Curator for the Hirshhorn Museum, Award.
“From the Mountains to the Mississippi,” Cheekwood Fine Arts Center, Nashville, TN.

1992
“Realism Today,” Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, Indiana.
Brooks Biennial Invitational Exhibition, Brooks Museum, Memphis Tennessee.
“From Dixie to Down Under,” Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Qld, Australia.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Boston Museum School
The Kemper Collection
The Bridgestone Collection
Tennessee State Museum
Huntsville Museum of Art
Oklahoma Museum of Art
Vanderbilt University
Cheekwood Museum of Art
Oklahoma State Collection
State University of NY, Potsdam
Northern Telecom
Nashville International Airport
The University of Wisconsin at Parkside
Bristol Myers
Prudential Collection, Chicago, IL
Graphic Chemical & Ink Co., Villa Park, IL
Beth DeWoody, NY
Hospital Corporation of America