Eileen Murphy

Speak to Me from Everywhere

Opening Reception

Saturday, April 27th

Eileen Murphy's artwork acts as a mosaic of diverse memories. Within her brushstrokes, one can discern the interplay of personal encounters, borrowed fragments from art history, and imagery inspired by literary allusions. Pulling from her own experiences and referencing influences such as Joachim Patinir, Jacob von Ruisdael, Frederick Church, along with nods to poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Murphy's own life story emerges from the fantasy worlds she creates.
Her paintings materialize as ethereal woodland vistas, where the boundaries between reality and imagination are blurred. Each layer of oil paint physically contributes to the evolving narrative, gaining precision and subtlety as they build on one another, like lines in a poem.
She uses vivid, heavily saturated colors, and golden undertones, a deliberate technique that propels her landscapes into the realms of the celestial, heightening their surrealist essence. Murphy's artistic expression becomes a captivating exploration, feeling intimate and personal while at the same time universally resonant.

Eileen Murphy (b. 1981) has been linked to the Hudson River throughout her life. Living in the heart of Brooklyn for the past nineteen years, she continues to be inspired by the picturesque landscapes of upstate New York. Eileen pours her passion into her paintings, capturing the body and soul of her surroundings where she often finds solace.

Murphy has exhibited her work widely and has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Yaddo, and the High Line Nine. She received the Individual Artist Award from the Santo Foundation in 2017; in that same year, she was  invited by the US Department of State to participate in the Art in the Embassies program, which sent her to Algeria. She was the Lead Faculty in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking in the MFA program at the Institute of Art and Design at New England College from 2020-23.