I am a London based artist who works with performance, and uses jewellery to critique ideas around value, meaning and purpose.
I am interested in power that exists within objectification, in particular the dominance that can result from excessive submissiveness. I enjoy opposites, contradictions and playful experiments on more serious underlying concepts and topics.
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My practice is also driven by the value of labour, how it is measured and changeable, always in flux. I find the way the meaning or value of an object can disappear or alter depending on who is viewing it compelling, and use my practice to experiment with this.
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In my work I aim to poke at and test the meaning of being ‘correct’ in our behaviour and interactions. I tend to use humour and subversion to work through my ideas, and am drawn to where humour can become awkward and tension can be felt.
Education
2021 - 2023 Royal College of Art, MA Jewellery and Metal
2012 - 2015 Central Saint Martins, BA Hons Jewellery Design
2011 - 2012 Central Saint Martins, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
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Exhibitions and Performances
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2024
MINE, Vistoe, Munich
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2023, Camden Arts Centre, London
2023
Lawless Imagination, RuptureXIBIT, London
FIX23, Catalyst Arts, Belfast
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2023, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool
Seams, Season Gallery, London
RCA Degree Show, Truman Brewery, London
JAMCabaret, Munich Jewellery Week Hub, Munich
2022
After acting like a doormat for many years, I will become a doormat, Hill Station Community Cafe, London
Precious Materials, Goldsmiths Fair, Goldsmiths Hall, London
Delivision: Three Video Projects by Lili Murphy-Johnson, Theatre Deli, Broadgate Circle, London
CAUTION: WORK IN PROGRESS, Safehouse 1, Peckham, London
W.I.P, Royal College of Art, Online
2018 The Jewellery Pop-Up, Shoreditch, London
2017 Decorating Dissidence, Mile End Art Pavilion, London
2016 Future Late, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London
2015 Central Saint Martins Degree Show, London
2014 Salvage, Central Saint Martins, London
2013 Entrance to Pearls exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2012 Central Saint Martins Foundation Degree Show, London
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Awards and Achievements
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2023 Long-listed for Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year
2023 Graham Hughes Award
2023 New Contemporaries 2023
2021 The Griffin Scholarship, to study at the RCA
Public Talks
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2023 Central Saint Martins, BA Jewellery Design, Autumn Lecture Series
Teaching Experience
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2024 Central Saint Martins, Visiting Lecturer for BA Jewellery Design
2024 Camden Art Centre, Transformative Futures
2023 Glasgow School of Art, BA Jewellery and Silversmithing, Week-long teaching placement
2019 - 2022 Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance, Foundation Performance Platform, Commissioned Works Collaborator
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Workshop Experience
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2021, 2023 - 2024 Jeweller, Castro Smith, London
2021 - 2023 Self Employed Freelance Jeweller
2020 - 2021 Workshop Manager, The Great Frog, London
2018 - 2020 Workshop Supervisor, The Great Frog, London
2016 - 2020 Jeweller, The Great Frog, London
2015 - 2016 Workshop Intern, Shaun Leane, London
2015 Studio Intern, Lily Kamper, London
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Publications
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2017 Narrative Jewellery: Tales from the Toolbox by Mark Fenn, p.192
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Press
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2024
The Observer Magazine, p. 7
2023 Aesthetic Anthologies Artist Feature
2020 Tampax
2019 She. Magazine, p.52
2018
She. Magazine, p.16-17
2017
Separee Magazine, cover and p.80-85
2016
Glamour, p.62-66
2015
2013
The Guardian Weekend Magazine, p.63
The Financial Times, How To Spend It
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My favourite piece in the New Contemporaries show at Camden Art Centre is a video by artist and jewellery designer Lili Murphy-Johnson...
Eva Wiseman, The Observer Magazine 4th February 2024
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This was my other highlight: [Lili Murphy-Johnson] gets a cheap ring from Accessorize, makes a facsimile and replaces it in the shop. It's incredibly funny while also being a sharp critique of the value we place on labour.
Josh Spero, Associate Arts Editor at The Financial Times
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Lili Murphy-Johnson’s short but sublime film High Street Jewellery (2023)...
Will Jennings, Plaster Magazine 22nd
January 2024
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[Lili Murphy-Johnson's] unusual background makes for an incredibly unique take on the state of the objects
Aesthetic Anthologies, 2023
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Lili Murphy-Johnson's "brace-let" of pearly teeth on orthodontic wire = genius.
The Guardian Weekend Magazine, 2013
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