Artist statement
Susie MacMurray is a Manchester-based artist, whose work encompasses drawing, sculpture, performance and architectural installations.
Working mainly in installation and sculpture, she has a reputation for site-specific interventions in historic spaces which resulted in her being nominated for the Northern Art Prize in 2007. Her work frequently references the history of a space and seeks to merge the particularities of that history, the specifics of site, and the meanings of materials in an attempt to gain insight into the relationship between people and place.
Drawing is also an important part of MacMurray’s practice and in recent years her work has been short listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Of late she has been exploring the possibilities of making drawings with unconventional materials including rubber tubing, hair and wax. She sees this work as ‘sculptural drawing’. Her new rubber wall pieces are formal explorations of the sculptural possibilities of working with mark-making and line in a material that maintains it’s own physical references.
Qualifications and training
- 2001 MA Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Solo exhibitions
- 2012 Resonance, Rochester Art Gallery, Rochester, UK
- 2011 The Eyes of the Skin, Agnews Gallery, Albermarle Street, London
- 2010 Widow, Platt Hall, Manchester Art Gallery, Gallery of Costume
- 2009 Widow, Queens Hall, Hexham, Northumberland
- 2009 Lost & Found, The Gallery Space, Islington Mill, Salford
- 2008 Drawn, UH Galleries, University of Hartfordshire
- 2004 Caryatids, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
- 2004 Flock, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
Group exhibitions
- 2012 Sculptor's Drawings, Pangolin, London
- 2012 Unnatural 'Natural History', Coates & Scarey/RWA, Bristol
- 2011 The Power of Making, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- 2011 Wedded Perfection, Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica NY, USA
- 2011 The House of Beasts, Meadow Arts for the National Trust, Attingham Park, Shropshire
- 2011 Compulsive Obsessive Repetitive, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
- 2011 Platform, Agnews Gallery, Albermarle Street, London
- 2010 Aware: Art Fashion Identity, GSK Contemporary, Royal Academy, London
- 2010 The Wedding Dress, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio USA
- 2010 Dead or Alive, Museum of Art & Design, New York
- 2009 Salon09, Matt Roberts Arts, Vyner St, London
- 2009 Re-Addressing Identities, Katonah Museum of Art, NY, USA
- 2009 Object as Muse, Crafts Council, Touring Exhibition, Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery
- 2009 Upcycling, Museum of Architecture & Design, Los Angeles, California, USA
- 2008 Second Lives - Remixing the Ordinary, Museum of Art and Design, New York
- 2008 The Baltic Frame, Arena Gallery, Liverpool Biennial Independents
- 2008 Body Space, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle
- 2005 Knit 2 Together, Crafts Council Galleries, London
- 2004 Robe / Rêve : Rêve de Robe, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Calais, France
- 2004 Air, Vespolate and Novara, Italy
- 2003 Thermo 03, The Lowry, Salford
Live/Performance
- 2012 Pandamonium, WWF event, curated by Artwise, Hyde Park, London
Corporate commissions
- 2010 Frangetta, Consorzio Venezia Nuova, Spazio Thetis, Venice, Italy
Competitions, prizes and awards
- 2011 Northern Art Prize, nominated, 2011
- 2010 Travel Grant, British Council, New York
- 2008 Professional Development award, The Arts Council England, Manchester
- 2007 Nominated Northern Art Prize
- 2006 Abbey Harris Mural Fund Award, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
- 2005 Shortlisted, Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London
- 2003 Shortlisted, Crosby Homes Art Prize, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
Site specific
- 2012 Stratum, Islington Mill, Salford
- 2010 Promenade, Kedleston Hall, National Trust, Derbyshire
- 2009 Here Come the Girls, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
- 2009 Tempus Mutatum (time/change), Nottingham Castle, Nottingham
- 2008 Miasma, Florence Nightingale Museum, London
- 2006 Shell, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
- 2006 Echo, York St Mary's, York Museums Trust, York
- 2004 Argus, Firstsite, Colchester
Personal website
