At the lowest point in Meg Lionel Murphy’s life, she found herself in an abusive relationship with a violent man. The relationship ended, and she’s since started a happy family with a supportive partner, but she grappled with trauma-induced PTSD for many years. Eventually, she turned to her art, working through her emotional demons by turning them into literal demons.
For the better part of a decade, the Door County-based artist has been developing a series of paintings in which female bodies are transformed through acts of violence into monstrous beings too big to ignore. “I juxtapose the horrors of femininity, I suppose you could say, with really bright, almost garish colors and girlish imagery,” Murphy explains. “I’m trying to find those highs and lows.”
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The paintings are equal parts beautiful and grotesque, whimsical and horrific. The push-pull dynamic at the heart of the compositions gives the works a uniquely compelling quality.
Her work has taken hold in Milwaukee and beyond. In 2023, the Museum of Wisconsin Art invited Murphy to join their “Ten at Ten” group show spotlighting emerging artists. 2024 proved even more eventful, starting with a solo exhibition at Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel and ending with a coveted spot at the “Untitled Fair,” represented by Portrait Society Gallery along with artist Della Wells.
Right now, Murphy’s work features prominently in “Talk Back Chapter Two: Collection,” the second exhibition of a series at the Charles Allis Art Museum. She and another Wisconsin artist, sculptor Christina A. West, were asked to reimagine the museum’s historically male-centric collection and furnishings in their pieces. In Murphy’s case, she places its knives and swords in the hands of vengeful female warriors reminiscent of medieval saints.
“The fact that we’re showing together in a duo show might be surprising,” Murphy says, “because I think our work is quite different. And yet, the way that we each play with gender, I hope, makes our pairing more obvious.”
Murphy doesn’t know exactly what 2025 will bring for her, but she isn’t planning to stop painting and exhibiting her work anytime soon.
“I feel so lucky to be working and showing here,” she says. “I’m so excited by all the beautiful things that happen in Milwaukee.”
“Talk Back Chapter Two: Collection” is on view at the Charles Allis Museum through Feb. 16. Visit charlesallis.org to learn more.
