Benjamin Murphy is a painter who examines human ingenuity, the nature of progress, and anthropogenic emergencies that shape our contemporary experience. Murphy sees the language of painting as an expanding one, exploring new technologies and finding ways to integrate them with the medium. He earned his MFA from the University of Oklahoma in 2022. As an artist, he actively engages in exhibitions, collaborations, and scholarly endeavors at the state, national, and international levels. Recently he participated in exhibitions at the Salle Gilbert-Gaillard Gallery in France, Webster Arts Center, University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and Gardiner Gallery Of Art at Oklahoma State University. He is the recipient of the R.B. Sprague Endowed Scholarship, Madeline Colbert Steed Scholarship, Robberson Research and Creative Endeavors Grant, Graduate Student Senate Research Grant, and a presenter at the OAEA Annual Conference in 2021.
As an educator, Murphy strives to bring the visual arts to students of all ages. At Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma, he brings enthusiasm and clear pedagogical objectives to the classroom. As a developing educator, the foundation of his teaching philosophy includes close collaboration with fellow educators/mentors and coaching art and design students to become independent visual thinkers. He is an instructor/mentor at his community art center and participates in fundraising initiatives for the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.