Artworks

David Murphy

Informed by the structures of industry, obsolete technology and examples of human achievement and inventiveness, I see the sculpture and drawings I make as a celebration of our abilities to overcome difficulties posed by our landscape and by all that we construct upon it. A broad range of source material incorporating historical artefacts, machines, manual processes and stories bring about specific objects that encapsulate a spirit of invention and endeavour. Our efforts to predict outcomes, manage the natural world, and our essential need to make and to build are important reference points. Rarely revealing their source material explicitly, works become a compression and filtration of the research into something less well defined; ambiguous forms that almost correspond with familiar realities, things or objects, but not quite.

Murphy (b.1983, Newcastle Upon Tyne) studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He is the recipient of the Kenneth Armitage Foundation Fellowship, London (2015-2017) and was shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize (2016) and the Jerwood Drawing Prize (2017). Recent exhibitions include Bartha Contemporary London (UK), Galleria Monica de Cardenas, Milan (IT), British Council, Cairo (EG), ALMA ZEVI Venice (IT), New Arts Centre, Salisbury (UK), PEER, London (UK), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (UK). Murphy has worked on large-scale commissions for the National Trust (UK), The Dales Museum (UK) and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshops (UK). Recent commissions include collaborations with Jamie Fobert Architects, a permanent new installation for Oxford House, Oxford Street, London, and The Blanket at the Piece Hall in Halifax (UK). He lives and works in London.