Hannah Murgatroyd (b. 1976, Bristol) is a painter whose work is underpinned by drawing and writing - shaping an open narrative of association. For Hannah “painting and drawing starts in the dream, a flicker at the edge of the eye. There is a feeling – the body is a vital force”. It is in this manner that places and figures make themselves known, given form at Murgatroyd’s hand. An autobiography of sorts, her works often depict wanderers and seers. A sense of a journey pervades throughout; people carry children, steer horses and hoist bones. Existing at the frontier of surface and shadow, Murgatroyd sees her practice as a means to make contact, not only with her own subconscious but also to open herself as a channel to other planes and entities who reveal themselves through her art. She says, ‘my eyes are open as I paint but the self sees the hidden self, and the other selves down the ages and those who wait beyond this age’. For Murgatroyd painting and drawing is a reverie, and she a conduit through which other realms might enter this one.

In 2018, Murgatroyd was included in the group survey exhibition ‘Women Can’t Paint’ at Turps & ASC Galleries, curated by Marcus Harvey. Group exhibitions include: ‘Our Souls to Keep’ at Field Projects, NYC, curated by Lissa Rivera from the Museum of Sex and ‘The Story of Zebedee’ at Von Goetz Art, London. She is featured in the ‘Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting’ (Casemate Publishing, 2018) for her solo show, ‘Landscape As A Peopled World’, at Exeter Phoenix (2017). She won the Exeter Contemporary Open in 2014 and is a graduate of the Royal College of Art.

selected works