There is a peculiar logic in Murphy’s drawings, one based on visual punning, a knowing exploitation of mid-century advertising for its sense of glamour, hope, and dreamy consumerism.

The perfect antidote for these times, they are exquisitely drawn in pencil as to be almost photographic. Her reimagined adverts play with notions of domestic bliss enhanced by the candy-floss clouds of new products. But there is ambiguity: Are they to be read as symbolically or literally present?

Marilyn Murphy lives in Whangarei and Nashville, where she taught as a professor of art at Vanderbilt University for 37 years. She has been awarded multiple grants and residencies and her work is in many public and private collections including the Kemper Collection, Huntsville Museum of Art, the Boston Museum School, and the Prudential and Bridgestone Collections. This is her first New Zealand exhibition.

All works are graphite on archival paper. Framed size 660 x 860mm. View more works in the exhibition here