Paul Luke Murphy, sculptor, Naarm / Melbourne

SculptorNaarm / Melbourne

01Sculpture

Real and imagined landscapes, in cast aluminium, clay, styrene and jelly.

Contact for a commission.

Photos: Aaron Claringbold, Jacob Collings, Mel De Ruyter, Lon Gallery

Traces, cast aluminium columns, 2.4 metres. Paul carves each column from polystyrene with a hot-wire bow saw he made himself, then casts it in aluminium in segments and welds them together, which leaves it hollow.

A single slender aluminium column on a black plinth, full view

Three aluminium columns of varying heights grouped together on plinths

Close view of folded aluminium surfaces, with neighbouring columns at the frame edges

Close-up of a deep fold and hollow in the aluminium form

Close-up of a jagged edge where the striated surface turns

The twisting upper section of a column against a white wall

A column photographed in the workshop under exposed roof trusses

A single slender aluminium column on a black plinth against a white wall, full view

The aluminium column standing on the shoreline with the ocean behind at dusk

Two polished aluminium columns on white plinths in a gallery

A tall dark aluminium column on a black plinth in a white gallery with windows

The column beside a gravel track among eucalypts

Impression 1, a cast aluminium column on a granite base against black

A polished aluminium column with a ridged surface on a black base

Commission a work

02Exhibitions 2016–18

Critical PointsJun 2018

Sawtooth ARI, Launceston. Paul’s first work in clay, shaped from seismic refraction surveys of the Cataract Gorge. “I found some maps, which I used to inform my sculpting of the different works.”
Impression VMay 2018

Winner of the North-East Tasmania Bakhap Award for Sculpture, Bridestowe Estate. A cast aluminium column just over two metres tall. Judge Janet Carding: “It felt like it could be a piece of rock, or it could be from the soil, or it could even be from a piece of machinery here at the farm.”
Site(s)Apr 2018

Blindside ARI, Melbourne. A three-person show with Lina Buck and Garth Howells about how a place shapes the work made for it. Paul showed Traces.
Lorne Sculpture BiennaleMar 2018

Lorne, Victoria, curated by Lara Nicholls under the theme Landfall. Paul cast Traces in aluminium for the Biennale, 2.4 metres tall.
PatinaMar 2018

Lon Gallery, Fitzroy, curated by Adam Stone, with Martin George and Laura Skerlj. Paul showed polystyrene works from Traces.
SevenJan 2018

Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, for Mona Foma. Fourteen artists in seven spaces, curated by Paul Eggins.
Traces2016–17

Carved polystyrene columns based on sea stacks and on Lake Pedder’s lost beaches. Shown at Sawtooth ARI in October 2016, then lit red inside St John’s Church, Launceston, for Nightlight at Junction Arts Festival 2017. Impression 1 was the first aluminium cast of a polystyrene piece.
Press2017–18
1. “Pointed display from Paul at Sawtooth”2018
  
  Sean Slatter, The Examiner
2. “North East Tasmania Bakhap Award winner announced at Bridestowe”2018
  
  Kasey Wilkins, The Examiner
3. “SEVEN”2018
  
  Karen Hall, Un Projects (archived copy)
4. “Paul Luke Murphy: natural artist”2018
  
  Jeremy Torr, Gaia Discovery
5. “Junction Arts Festival: illuminating a town with art”2017
  
  Lauren Carroll Harris, RealTime (archived copy)
6. “Postcards from Junction Arts Festival”2017
  
  Richard Watts, ArtsHub
7. “Gallery + review: Inner Varnika 2017”2017
  
  Nick Buckley, Broadsheet Melbourne (archived copy)

03About

Paul Luke Murphy, sculptor, returned to Naarm / Melbourne in 2020.

He was born in Daylesford in 1991 and moved from Melbourne to Launceston to study architecture. There he started Traces, a response to Lake Pedder. The lake was drowned for hydro power in 1972, pink quartz beach and all. “The work with Lake Pedder turned out quite well, so I decided to study art.”

He finished a Bachelor of Environmental Design, then Honours in contemporary art at the Tasmanian College of the Arts. Traces stood 2.4 metres tall at the 2018 Lorne Sculpture Biennale. Critical Points, his first body of work in clay, took its forms from seismic refraction surveys of the Cataract Gorge.

From Launceston he showed at Junction Arts Festival, Mona Foma, Artentwine, Ten Days on the Island and Blindside in Melbourne. He also sat on the board of Sawtooth ARI and was one of the organisers of the Rose Quartz Arts & Music Festival. In 2018 he won the North East Tasmania Bakhap Award for Sculpture with Impression V, a two-metre cast aluminium piece for Bridestowe Estate.

Alongside set design, he has done technical work for Dark Mofo, Falls Festival and White Night Melbourne.

Private collections

Macquarie Bank2020

Awards

North-East Tasmania Bakhap Award for Sculpture, Impression V2018

Education

Contemporary Art (Honours), Tasmanian College of the Arts2017
Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture)2013–16

04Contact

Instagram@paulie.murph