Olivia Murphy is an Instructor of Art History at SIUE, where she teaches Introduction to Art, the second half of the History of Western Art survey course, and various upper-level courses in modern art, contemporary art, and American art. As an art historian, Dr. Murphy’s scholarship focuses on contemporary art produced by members of marginalized communities in the American West, including Indigenous, African American, queer, and/or female-identifying artists. Her current research project investigates the long and varied histories of female mobility in Western America as represented and interrogated by contemporary artists. In examining female artists from a wide range of identities, her project analyzes how collective memory changes and asks if outsiders can bring about accepted shifts in what the American popular imagination has memorialized as the American West.
Dr. Murphy is dedicated to advancing the inclusion of historically marginalized groups within art history and as well as promoting the importance of community engagement within art historical projects. Because the perspectives of marginalized individuals have been excluded from Western art history for so long, she finds it imperative to center the voices of artists in her courses, articles, conference presentations, and larger research projects. One such project is the Black Artists of Oklahoma Project (BAOP), for which Dr. Murphy has been the research lead and curator since 2021. Created in 2020 at the University of Oklahoma to increase recognition of the legacy of African American and African diasporic arts in Oklahoma, BAOP was awarded a National Archives National Historic Publications and Records Commission-Mellon planning grant in late 2023 to develop a digital edition of the archive, on which Dr. Murphy is presently working along with an essay on the history of Black art in Oklahoma for the upcoming Routledge Companion to African American Art Practices. In addition to her teaching and research endeavors, Dr. Murphy has extensive curatorial and oral history experience, including co-curating two exhibitions of Native American art for the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art—Kiowa Agency: Stories of the Six and Ascendant: Expressions of Self Determination—and participating as a fellow in the inaugural Getty-funded Summer Institute in Art History through the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley.
Dr. Murphy earned a Ph.D. in Art History: Art of the American West and a M.A. in Art History, with a focus on Native American art, from the University of Oklahoma. She earned B.A.s in Art History and Studio Art and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Iowa. She is also a member of organizations such as the College Art Association, Native American Art Studies Association, Society of Contemporary Art Historians, and P.E.O. International. In her free time, Dr. Murphy enjoys running, knitting sweaters for her tiny dog, and enjoying all that the St. Louis metro has to offer.
Contact Dr. Murphy: omurphy@siue.edu
Selected Publications:
“A Refusal to See: The (In)visibility of Black Oklahoman Artistic Production within American Art History” in Routledge Companion to African American Art Practices, edited by Dr. Eddie Chambers. Upcoming.
“Truthiness, Alternative Facts, and Ersatz Truths: Andrea Carlson’s Exploration of Settler Cultural Cannibalism.” Ethnic Studies Review 46, no. 3 (October 2023): 48-72. https://doi.org/10.1525/esr.2023.46.3.48.
“Archival Assembly: The Black Artists of Oklahoma Project and Art-Historical Infrastructure.” Panorama: Journal for the Association of American Art Historians 9, no. 1. Published online June 2023. https://journalpanorama.org/article/archival-assembly/. Co-authored with Dr. Robert Bailey.
“Mapping the Empty: Eight Artists and Nevada. By William L. Fox. (Reno & Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1999. Xiv + 171 pp. Illustrations, photographs, sources. $29.95, paper.).” Book review for Western Historical Quarterly. Published online January 17, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whad033. Summer 2023 print Issue (Volume 54, No. 2).
“Legacy,” “T.C. Cannon, Minnesota Sioux II (1971),” and “Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, In the Future (1995).” In Ascendant: Expressions of Self Determination, edited by Alicia Harris. Norman: Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 2022. Pages 29-35, 36-37, and 38-39.
“Bou-ge-tah ‘Lois’ Smoky (1907–1981)” and “Jack Hokeah (1901–1969).” In Kiowa Agency: Stories of the Six, edited by W. Jackson Rushing III. Norman: Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 2020. Pages 26-31 and 14-19.
