SEPT. 13 | Idris Murphy: In Conversation with Joe Frost

On Saturday September 13, from 2pm, please join us at King Street Gallery on William for an artist talk with contemporary landscape painter, Idris Murphy and artist and writer, Joe Frost.

KSGoW would like to invite you to walk with Idris Murphy through his current exhibition Vibrations of the Primal on Saturday September 13, for an informal exhibition tour, and artist talk. Please join us at the gallery from 1:30pm.

Contemporary landscape painter, Idris Murphy was born in 1949, Sydney. He graduated from National Art School with a diploma in Painting in 1971, and then became the institution’s Head of Drawing in 1997. Idris has been represented by King Street Gallery since 1993.
Idris completed a Doctor of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong in NSW and a Graduate Diploma (Education), SCAE, in Sydney whilst he was Head of Painting at the College of Fine Art from 1988-2007. Idris was instrumental in the establishment of the ILIRI project at College of Fine Art (Imaging the Land International Research Institute), which is now the UNSW's Broken Hill Fowlers Gap Research Station artist residency.

Murphy’s work is featured across a multitude of public, state and corporate both in Australia and overseas. His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia; National Library of Australia; Artbank; Allens Arthur Robinson; ANU University Drill Hall Collection; Art Gallery of New South Wales; State Library NSW; Gallipoli Memorial Club; Parliament House collection, Canberra; University of New South Wales, the Sydney University Art Collection and  Macquarie Bank; Westpac Collection and the Biblioteque National de Paris. His work is also predominantly featured in numerous regional museums and galleries such as Orange, Rockhampton, Cowra, Coffs Harbour, Broken Hill, and Bathurst [selected list]. 

Joe Frost is an artist, represented by Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney, and a writer on art. Over twenty years he has published exhibition reviews, catalogue essays, interviews and the monograph ‘Charles Cooper: On Location’. 

Refreshments will be provided on arrival.

If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor assistance please contact King Street Gallery staff via email: art@kingstreetgallery.com, or phone: 02 9360 9727. This event may be recorded. 

🔔When: Saturday, SEPTEMBER 13

📅 Time: 2-3pm, please arrive from 1:30pm.

📍Where: King Street Gallery on William, located 177-185 William Street, Darlinghurst. 

There is something increasingly ‘primal’ in his art – something that speaks of essence and something that is deeply rooted in our psyche. It is an art that reflects the beginning of a direct response to country or habitat and one that seems to bypass conscious thought and verbal explanations. He increasingly seems to adopt an instinctive response to country, but one that has been distilled through many decades of art practice.

- Excerpt from the catalogue essay by Sasha Grishin, 2025 

Image: Portrait of Idris Murphy, 2025 Photograph courtesy Adam Crews.