Vero Murphy
Bio
Vero Murphy is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Argentina. From 2011 to 2014, she lived in Brazil before moving to Miami. She is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at Florida International University (FIU), has studied Visual Arts at Miami Dade College (MDC), and has taken continuing education courses at the University of Miami (UM). She also holds a dual bachelor’s degree in Business from Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) and has a strong background in project management and innovation.
In her paintings and installations, she uses various materials and mediums selected precisely to
emphasize their symbolic value. In her recent work, she has developed an abstract language
linked to human geography and the cultural landscape of Latin America, utilizing gold, yerba
mate, and other natural pigments.
She has showcased her work in Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. She
participated in the Biennale Internazionale d’arte Contemporanea di Firenze in Italy and has
exhibited her works in art institutions, galleries, and art fairs such as Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires, the Doral Contemporary Art Museum, the Coral Gables Museum, and the Pinta Art Fair in Miami.
Her works have been recognized at the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporánea in Buenos
Aires, Argentina; Salón BCM Art Gallery in Barcelona, Spain; Galeria Forma in Buenos Aires,
Argentina; and the Doral Cultural Art Center in Miami, United States.
Statement
The series Cultures in Friction (2017-), by Vero Murphy (Argentina, 1973-), marks the artist’s discovery of an abstract language as subjective as it is loaded with a collective memory linked to human geography and to the cultural landscape of Latin America. Instead of acrylics and oil paint, Murphy employs natural materials like gold and yerba mate as her artistic medium. She extends them on the canvas as signs of historical tensions, proposing an aesthetic-poetic path that goes from the animosity between cultures long set in opposition to one another, to the search for dialogical spaces. The smears of yerba mate, a dietary staple of the Guarani people, symbolize the original civilizations of the southern reaches of Latin America—jungle farmers who migrated to the continent's southern regions in search of Yvy-mará-ey, the "Land Without Evil." These smears extend across Murphy's paintings as a legacy of reciprocity. Simultaneously, on the surface of her works, she extends layers of gold, emblematic of Europe's fascination with this resplendent metal, whose presence on Earth is nearly unparalleled. By exploring the physical and symbolic specters of materials of both vegetable and mineral origin, Murphy is able to establish vast meeting spaces in her vestige-laden paintings. Embracing the concept of hybrid cultures each one of her pieces sensitizes memory, generating a syncretic and dialogical vision for the present and the future. Text by Adriana Herrera
