About

Elizabeth Murphy (b. 1979) is a ceramic artist based in Oxfordshire whose practice is based around exploring narratives woven with threads of history, literature, music, art, nature and the human condition.

In deference to traditional forms, thrown and assembled vessels become backdrops for explorations in texture and surface pattern achieved through hand building methods as well as complex glazing and firing techniques. Working in an improvisational and expressionistic style with meandering and woven texture, the vessel form is revealed, obscured, embraced and transformed by the textural interventions. Glaze plays an important part in her compositions and is used to add extra depth to the surface and highlights and reveals aspects of the texture and form. Each vessel is an investigation where no surface is the same and no two works are alike as each piece seems to lead on to another inquiry in different clay bodies, texture and glaze combination. The final works of art are dynamic vessel sculptures as the viewer is constantly discovering a new detail within the work.

Murphy has exhibited her work at Oxfordshire Artweeks, Messum’s West, The Old Lock Up Gallery and The Kiln Room at Delamore Arts 2025 and has sold her work at various fairs including Handmade Oxford and Potfest.