Digital Prints by Jeff Murphy to kick off the 2012-13 Season at Coker's Bell Gallery

The Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery opens its 2012-13 season with an exhibition of digital prints by Jeff Murphy on Monday, Aug. 27.

Murphy will be present for the opening reception to talk about his work and answer questions.  The reception, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m.  Refreshments will be served.  The show will continue through Sept. 21.

“Raised in a Catholic family, I was indoctrinated within an intense religious belief system, beliefs that I shared with my parents until college. However, after I was exposed to a larger picture of the world, my faith began to crumble,” said Murphy.  “Ultimately,” he concluded, “my works represent a search for spiritual truth, a quest for an epiphany.”

Jeff Murphy’s work typically begins with his own photographs, which he layers and manipulates, digitally, to create new images. Over the years, he has printed his images on a variety of materials that include large-scale transparencies mounted on light boxes, paper, canvas, and more recently, panoramas printed with pigmented inks on poplin.

Murphy often uses images that present landscape and structures in relation to religious iconography.  Some of his pieces invoke the idea of the sublime as a spiritual signifier. Visual references from Islam and Christianity serve as important metaphors for the conjoined nature of religious experience.

Murphy has developed interactive projects for CDs and the Web and has participated in a number of curated online exhibits including @art through the University of Illinois and Digitally Born through the Alternative Museum in New York.  He has also presented his works in traditional gallery and museum settings with solo exhibitions at The Mint Museum of Art, The University of Notre Dame and The University of Colorado. His work has been published in a diverse array of print publications including WIRED Magazine, World Art Magazine and the textbook Exploring Color Photography. He has received individual artist grants from the Arts and Science Council, the Ohio Arts Council and the North Carolina Arts Council.

An associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Murphy teaches digital imaging, interactive design, photography, video and animation. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ohio State University and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Florida.

The Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery is located in the Gladys C. Fort Art Building on the Coker College campus. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, while classes are in session.

For more information about the gallery, contact Gallery Director and Assistant Professor of Art Larry Merriman at 843-383-8156 or lmerriman@coker.edu or visit http://cokerartgallery.wix.com/ccgb.

Coker College upholds and defends the intellectual and artistic freedom of its faculty and students as they study and create art through which they explore the full spectrum of human experience. The college considers such pursuits central to the spirit of inquiry and thoughtful discussion, which are at the heart of a liberal arts education.

Photo:  “Ripple,” digitally manipulated images, pigment inks on poplin cloth, 14 x 42 x 2 inches, 2010, by Jeff Murphy.

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Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the “Best Colleges” in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.