About Me.
Hannah McMurray is a multidisciplinary artist based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, she is currently a studio holder at Platform Arts Belfast, where she is also a Co-Director. McMurray gained a Masters in Fine Art from the University of Ulster in 2022.
Her practice is an accumulation of her broad range of interests, including; Film, theatre, literature, history and music. McMurray also plays the French Horn and is an active member of multiple orchestras (Studio Symphony, Belfast Pops and is a freelance pit musician in theatre productions). This collaborative practice provides an essential balance for her studio work and aids in generating new ideas.
Hannahs current body of work centres around duality. Her differing methods play off each other and create an interesting dialogue around artists' relationship to having a binary or signature style. It highlights how our creativity can shift and change as we grow. On one hand the practice is a childlike and colourful in its exploration into home, displacement, trauma, landscape and escapism. The distortion lies in the lack of human presence and unnatural house layouts with limited or obstructed exits.
The other side of her practice is an exploration of movement and vivid gestures, consisting of improvised, monochromatic gestures often guided my music and rhythm. Hannah aims to bring these two different approaches to art and life together, the thinking and feeling existing together.
Education
2020- 2022
2016- 2019
2015- 2016
2015- 2016
MFA Fine Art, Ulster University Belfast
BA Hons Fine Art, 1st class hons, Ulster University
BA Hons Fine Art (1st year), Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Belfast Metropolitan College, distinction
Exhibitions
2023
‘Melting Pot 8’, Artcetera
2023
‘Unheimlich’, Flax Studios, North St
2023
'Afterword', group show, The Engine Room
2023
American Bar showcase with musicians
2023
'TIME', Flax members show, Flax Project Space
2022
'AESTHETICA', The Holy Art Gallery, London, Hackney
2022
2022
'XII', MFA Degree show, Ulster University Belfast
'CONCURRENCE', MFA Interim show, QSS
2021
'Polyphony 21', MFA 1st year show, QSS
2021
2019
Belfast print workshop, end of graduate membership show
BA Degree show, Ulster University Belfast
2016
Baltic 39, Northumbria University group show, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2016
2015
Northumbria University, 1st year group show, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Foundation diploma show, Belfast Metropolitan College, Castlereagh
Curatorial
2023
'SIMULACRUM', group show, Platform Arts Belfast
Awards
2019
Belfast Print Workshop graduate membership
2019
RDS Visual Art Awards, long listed
2019
John and Rachel Turner Bursary
Experience
2023- current
2022- current
2022
2020-2022
2018
Co-Director at Platform Arts Belfast
Invigilator in The Mac
Worked with Claire Barclay during her install of ‘Thrum’ in the Mac and Rachel Turner Bursary
PR work for all MFA shows I have been involved in, including building a website, poster design and the running of various social media pages
Art Teaching experience and screen print workshop at Victoria College Belfast