The 2022 Retrospective Exhibition

Billie E. Murray

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Major Ceramics (BFA)
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The 2022 Retrospective Exhibition
A number of brightly colored three to four feet ceramic gestures are embedded in the green landscape. The textures vary from matte to satin smooth finishes, and the platforms consist of bricks and cinderblocks. + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
Landscape Drawing 2020 stoneware, house paint, mica pigment, cinder blocks, bricks
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A handful of familiar ceramic vessels inhabit an interior with checkerboard floors and bright lighting. They fill the room like bodies at a crowded function. + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
A Get Together 2020 stoneware, house paint, mica pigment, glaze, cinder blocks, bricks
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A tall hallow clay structure is painted in a varying blue, purple and pink checkerboard pattern, mimicking the shape of long dress-like garment. + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
Torso (Shell) 2022 stoneware, house paint 12 x 51 x 45 in
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Billie E. Murray
Alphabet Soup & Sketchbook Tablets 2020 house paint, spray paint, gouache, Matt Wedel clay body, plaster, porcelain slip, mason stains, acrylic, underglaze
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A four-foot tall ceramic vessel sits on a structure consisting of cinderblocks and a green pallet. The bulbous form is saturated with text and marks outlining the nutritional facts of a Dean's ice cream container found in the artist's grandmother's Freeze + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
Dean's Neapolitan 2022 Matt Wedel sculpture body, house paint, acrylic
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Within the Blue Interior, two main tablets sit on pedestals. White and Blue porcelain shards are framed by light blue plaster borders as commemorations of childhood stories and passing thoughts. + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
The Home is like a Cast Iron Pan 2021 plaster, porcelain slip, mason stains, acrylic, underglaze
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Within the Blue Interior, two main tablets sit on pedestals. White and Blue porcelain shards are framed by light blue plaster borders as commemorations of childhood stories and passing thoughts. + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
Goodnight Moon 2021 plaster, porcelain slip, mason stains, acrylic, underglaze
Purchase
The first image captures the artist loading a four-foot tall clay vessel patterned with small squares of underglaze screen prints into the kiln. The second image shows a warm embrace between the artist and new piece as it approaches a 47 hour firing. The + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
(in progress) 2022 house paint, spray paint, polyacrylic, Matt Wedel clay body
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The first image captures the artist loading a four-foot tall clay vessel patterned with small squares of underglaze screen prints into the kiln. The second image shows a warm embrace between the artist and new piece as it approaches a 47 hour firing. The + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
(in progress) 2 2022 house paint, spray paint, polyacrylic, Matt Wedel clay body
Purchase
The first image captures the artist loading a four-foot tall clay vessel patterned with small squares of underglaze screen prints into the kiln. The second image shows a warm embrace between the artist and new piece as it approaches a 47 hour firing. The + Enlarge
Billie E. Murray
(in progress) 3 2022 house paint, spray paint, polyacrylic, Matt Wedel clay body
Purchase
Statement

My current work is concerned with the practice of building clay entities that reference and discuss the body. My practice has evolved from an exploration of filling, expanding, and demanding space through the ceramic medium. From protective structures like garments and constructive materials like cinder blocks, my hand built forms are inspired by the building blocks of support that elevate, house and shield bodies.

I am enamored by the way information is collected through the consumption of media. My work stresses the accumulation of material and ideas. Clay becomes saturated with the impressions of hands as it creates a record of progress. Slab by slab, my hands compose sentences and stories as many parts are woven together to make a surface.

“Building” is a verb that drives my thinking. We build companionships, we compose spaces, and we assemble homes. My lifestyle has become heavily intertwined with the way that I build my large ceramic forms through the celebration of many parts coming together to make a whole. I am intrigued by heirlooms of labor and the way my family has told stories with our hands for generations through food, tradition, and exaggeration. I believe in the importance of histories that are passed down through gesture and touch. My practice is a testament to the right to consume and occupy space. Silently, but loudly asking to be seen, my work emphasizes the inherent value and strength in remembering and exhibiting movement.

Ceramics (BFA) Students
Alice Fraser
Billie E. Murray
Hye Rin Woo - not exhibiting
Maggie Jones - not exhibiting
Rachel Wikfors - not exhibiting
Rachel Wikfors
Ryze Xu

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