MEG LIONEL MURPHY
BIOMeg Lionel Murphy is a painter based in Madison, Wisconsin, and an MFA candidate in Painting at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her work explores trauma, transformation, folklore, and the female body through a feminist mythology informed by medieval visual culture, folk Catholicism, and contemporary narrative.
Recent solo exhibitions include Deliver Me at Law Warschaw Gallery (St. Paul), Ecstasy & Escape at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, Traumatica Dramatica at The Untitled Space (New York), and Interior Violence at CoExhibitions (Minneapolis). Murphy is represented by Portrait Society Gallery. Her work is held in the collection of the Minnesota Museum of American Art and has been featured in Hyperallergic, Artnet News, Forbes, New American Painting, and Bitch Media.
BACKGROUNDA diagnosis of severe PTSD led Murphy to leave her career in publishing to focus on painting and healing. She moved back to rural Wisconsin where she started painting in her father’s junkyard, in a studio shack that was converted from an industrial cooler. As her art took off, she moved her studio to an old storefront—once a church—in Sturgeon Bay’s downtown area.
Meg’s paintings are directly influenced by her personal experiences with severe domestic violence.
Murphy was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and grew up in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin—where her family worked in the shipbuilding and tourism industries.
Meg received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, with three majors: Art, Art History, and English Literature. Additionally, Meg studied classical oil painting in Florence, Italy. After graduation, Meg continued to live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she worked as a children’s illustrator, co-founded the literary and art magazine, Paper Darts, and co-directed the arts and social justice non-profit, Pollen Midwest.
PRESSMEG LIONEL MURPHY BY AMARA PHOTOGRAPHY“Murphy’s paintings depict a new beginning for people who have endured trauma. Floral forms embrace feminine forms, as if overgrowing their environments. They stretch beyond the canvas and join with the adjacent paintings. Groups of womxn in the paintings appear to be in conversation with each other, some in similar poses reflecting the same stories. One is submerged under water, grasping a plant above water as if they are starting their journey to recovery.
Murphy’s artwork has been featured in a variety of publications including Hyperallergic, Artnet News, Bitch Magazine, New American Painting, Forbes, GirltalkHQ, Art Publika, Interlocateur, Tartarus, Mutual Art, Brown Paper Bag, MPLS Art, Mulieris Magazine, Neut Magazine, 360Magazine, and The Untitled Magazine.
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