Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2026
Bri Murphy is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of digital fabrication and traditional sculpture and ceramic practices. Their work explores American identity through the deconstruction of national mythologies and is deeply informed by material investigation, history, and the power of objects to hold meaning and memory. Murphy holds an MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University and a BFA in Ceramics and BA in Art Education from SUNY New Paltz. They are based in Greeley, Colorado, and are Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Digital Fabrication at the University of Northern Colorado.
My work is an ongoing exploration of the contrasting and often conflicting narratives that shape American identity. Grounded in historical research, my practice examines the interconnected ways that material, economy, and culture influence one another – a deep appreciation for traditional craft existing alongside a fascination with digital tools and processes, which mirror contemporary anxieties about technology’s role in both preserving and destabilizing cultural memory. Central to my practice is a desire to hold the tensions of the present against the mythologized narratives of the American past – the simultaneous radicalism and exclusionary nature of the country’s founding, and the assumptions about access, inheritance, and belonging that persist in its symbols. My work grapples with the cognitive dissonance many Americans experience – the negotiation between confronting a painful history and holding personal memories shaped by those same cultural myths. Through this, I aim to create spaces of resonance for viewers navigating similar questions of identity, memory, and nationhood.