BIOGRAPHY:

Tanya Murphy’s fine art career has spanned more than thirty years. Her art is inspired by historical and ancestral research as well as exploring nature’s resilience to thrive throughout the ages. Her artistic narratives derive from influences which resound in exploring her memories, real or imaginative. Tanya is a multi-disciplinary artist working in varied media such as: photography, collage, printmaking, painting, and mixed media. It is often her process to combine media and allow narratives to evolve through each discipline. She became known for her mono-toned, collagraph mixed media artworks using raised figurative relief carvings combined with photography, collage, printmaking and painting techniques. In 2009 her talents were recognized by the African American Museum in Philadelphia. They presented her first major solo exhibit, “Shadows Of A Journey”. In 2020 Tanya was commissioned to create, “Looming Over Us” for the permanent exhibition of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum in MD. The Underground Railroad: Other Voices of Freedom. Tanya has participated in over twenty-five group and solo exhibitions nationally. Her works are in numerous public and private collections, and she is a recipient of the Brandywine Workshop & Archives, Artists in Residence Award.

Born and raised in urban Philadelphia, Tanya spent many summers in South Carolina living in a rural farming family environment. This homestead influence is the co-anchor of much of her artwork.

Tanya Murphy received her BFA, degree in photography from Temple University’s, Tyler School of Art in 1988 and continued studies in painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts. She has served her art community as curator for such institutions as Widener University, Chester PA, the Philadelphia Sketch Club, and Gallery Director of the Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia. Tanya taught art for the Philadelphia Public Schools and the African American Museum In Philadelphia for ten years. She has published three books and has been a contributing writer for the Urban Suburban Magazine, Philadelphia. She is an affiliate of the National Conference of Artists, Detroit, MI, and the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia. In 2017, Tanya relocated her life with her husband George Latham and her business, Joose Studios, LLC to Charlotte, NC. She is a member of the Light Factory, and the Charlotte Art League in Charlotte, NC.