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We’re excited to celebrate our 200th episode of Art Wank with the incredible Idris Murphy During our visit to Idris’ home studio, we had a captivating conversation about his journey as an artist and his thought-provoking philosophies on art and painting. Idris is a bold, well-read artist who constantly pushes the limits of his practice, and our discussion was truly inspiring. A big thank you to Idris for his time.

Idris is represented by King Street on William  in Sydney

‘Idris Murphy is a contemporary figurative landscape painter born in 1949, Sydney. He graduated from National Art School with a diploma in Painting in 1971, and then became the institution’s Head of Drawing in 1997.

Idris completed a Doctor of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong in NSW and a Graduate Diploma (Education), SCAE, in Sydney whilst he was Head of Painting at the College of Fine Art from 1988-2007. In 1982, Murphy was a lecturer at the University of Wollongong, NSW, and was instrumental in establishing the printmaking department of the newly founded School of Creative Arts.

From 1976-1977, Idris completed his Postgraduate studies in painting & printmaking at Winchester College of Art, UK. To date, Murphy has had 40 solo exhibitions across Australia and internationally. Idris’ survey show I & Thou: Survey Exhibition 1986-2008 was exhibited at King Street Gallery in Sydney, Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery and Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, NSW. In 2022, a major retrospective of Idris’ work Backblocks was exhibited at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery from August 16, 2022 which then travelled to Orange Regional Art Gallery and the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery, in 2023.

Idris has been represented by King Street Gallery since 1993.

Intrinsic to Murphy’s art making process is an engagement with the environment which surrounds him, and by extension, his en plein air practice. Murphy explains that his ‘expeditions’ through the Australian bush ‘offer him enough to last a lifetime’. (Catalogue Essay, 2017, Gregor Sloss) His work aims to ‘transform an already imagined landscape’ (Sloss, 2017). Murphy’s practice attempts to mirror Indigenous respect for the Australian landscape. Murphy suggests that an Indigenous Australian landscape painting is a reinvigoration of the landscape and is sustained by its Dreamings.

Murphy’s work can be found in a number of public, state and corporate collections such as the ANU University Drill Hall Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, State Library NSW, Artbank, Allens Collection, and the Westpac Collection.

Idris’ studio is located in Kurnell, Sydney.’ - King st Gallery website