MOLLIE MURPHY

untitled (satin doll), reclaimed textiles and clothes, naturally dyed cotton and wool patchwork, appliqué and quilting, 30x23 inches

EVOLUTION GRANT recipient 2026

STATEMENT

I am a sculptor, book artist, photographer, and all-around maker whose work grows out of cross-disciplinary impulses. My current projects bring together found objects, fabric, and materials, small sculptures, stitch work and quilting to create literal and figurative blankets. Part drawing, sort-of sculpture, all craft, I create hybrid quilts that hold unexpected materials, significant objects, many processes, and a lifetime of learning.

This transformative work has resulted in a deep connection to my earliest roots as a joyful maker.

Working within the quilt format requires diligence, time, patience, and humility. Embedded in this process is the story and the history of women's work: resourcefulness, anonymous labor, and relentless creativity. I feel simultaneously connected to and alienated from that story. This is a sometimes troubled but very fruitful place to find myself in.

My work centers itself using the tools and practices of traditional quilt making in order to break the limiting boundaries of long-established art and craft categories.

My quilts are often not big enough, soft enough, or practical enough to keep anyone warm but they do make my brain light up.

BIO

Mollie Murphy received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University and a BA in English Literature from George Mason University. Solo and group exhibition venues include Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC; The Arts Council of Princeton, NJ; the Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN; CollectiCo Gallery, NYC; Galapagos Artspace, Brooklyn, NY; City Without Walls, Newark, NJ; The Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ; Phoenix Gallery, NYC; apexart, NYC; and 301 Gallery, Beverly, MA. She has been awarded residencies at Cowhouse Studios in Wexford, Ireland, Vermont Studio Center, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Kansas City Art Institute, Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts (Windgate Fellowship for Innovation in Crafts) and Sciences and the American Academy of Rome. She received a 2025 Artist's Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and, most recently, was happy to spend a productive March of 2026 at The Siena Art Institute as a resident artist.

Mollie lives and works in Princeton, NJ.