GWEN MURPHY
Artist Bio:
Gwen Murphy was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She moved to Kansas City to earn her BFA in Painting and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute in May of 2021. She is a Midwestern based artist who creates figurative quilts. Gwen is drawn to quilting for its history of craft and ecological sustainability. Her work aims to create tension in the arbitrary gap between fine art and craft.
Statement:
I am a quilting artist. My work portrays the female form through the language of quilting. I am interested in quilting’s history as a female-gendered craft, and the legacy of craft as a less valued art form. I explore quilting as both a craft and fine art form in order to present a different view of women’s labor through a female lense.
In my work I use the form of quilting to explore the history of Western painting and its subjects. From the Renaissance through Impressionism, male painters have idealized the female form through representations of nude, sexualized women. This history is ingrained in how we assign value to painting. My work aims to expose misogynistic biases within Western art history by portraying the female figure in a position of power rather than the subject of a voyeuristic male gaze. She will not be seen as modest or passive.
Quilting has historically been devalued for its ties to women’s work and its utilitarian purpose. My work embraces these traditions by referencing early 20th century patterns and motifs, while also building tension between the established hierarchies of craft and fine art. By reimagining historical pattern-making, and portraying the female nude at an imposing scale, I honor the history of female labor which has largely been dismissed. The women in my quilts reclaim the role of the voyeur and look directly at you.
