Sculptor
Naarm / Melbourne
01Sculpture
Traces
Cast aluminium columns, 2.4 metres
The work is about real and imagined landscapes. 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.
Contact for a commission.
Photos: Aaron Claringbold, 2020
02Archive 2016–18
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
Photos: Aaron Claringbold
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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.
Photos: Aaron Claringbold
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PatinaMar 2018
Lon Gallery, Fitzroy, curated by Adam Stone, with Martin George and Laura Skerlj. Paul showed polystyrene works from Traces.
Photos courtesy of Lon Gallery
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SevenJan 2018
Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, for Mona Foma. Fourteen artists in seven spaces, curated by Paul Eggins.
Photos: Jacob Collings
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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.
Photos: Mel De Ruyter (Sawtooth ARI), Jacob Collings (Nightlight)
Press
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Sean Slatter, The Examiner
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Kasey Wilkins, The Examiner
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“SEVEN”2018
Karen Hall, Un Projects (archived copy)
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Jeremy Torr, Gaia Discovery
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Lauren Carroll Harris, RealTime (archived copy)
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Richard Watts, ArtsHub
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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.
- Macquarie Bank, private collection2020
- North-East Tasmania Bakhap Award for Sculpture, Impression V2018
- Contemporary Art (Honours), Tasmanian College of the Arts2017
- Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture)2013–16
04Contact
- [email protected]Commissions
- Instagram@paulie.murph