About

Brandon Murphy — Artist Bio

Born in 1974 and raised on a farm, my creative journey has been anything but conventional — from college basketball courts to 29 years in the advertising world.

Every painting begins with a contradiction.

I create mixed media paintings that explore the contradictions that make us human.

I’m drawn to unlikely pairings: nature and technology, science and spirituality, wisdom and absurdity, nostalgia and progress, strength and vulnerability. Rather than resolving those tensions, I use them as the starting point for each piece.

Every painting begins with layers of vintage books, maps, diagrams, poetry, and found ephemera. These fragments of human knowledge become the foundation for contemporary figures that feel both familiar and impossible. A mountain man wearing headphones. A corporate leader with an octopus for a head. A bulldog practicing Zen. A father consumed by the digital world.

These characters are metaphors for the competing identities we all carry and the contradictions we navigate every day.

My years in advertising trained me to find unexpected connections between ideas. Painting allows me to follow those connections wherever they lead, without the need for a campaign, a headline, or a conclusion.

I hope my work rewards curiosity. At first glance, the paintings are playful and unexpected. The longer you spend with them, the more the layers begin to reveal themselves, both literally and metaphorically.

He’s shown work at Serenbe Art Show, Chat Hills Gallery, Gallery Anderson Smith (Atlanta), the GA Lawyers Art Show at King Plow, Blue Eyed Daisy, and Enzo at Trilith.

Follow the process and the mess @brandonmurphyart