Davis Murphy Biography

Having the best of both worlds, Davis spent the last thirty years in the Manhattan and Miami art swirl of Commercial production and find art as well as the sanctuary of a sculpture compound he established in the pristine wilderness amidst 2000 acres of Cypress swamps and pastureland on the Withlachochee River, Florida

It was six years of art school and a long commute while he attended Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, University of Miami, Florida International University, and The Miami Art Center under Roberto Martinez.

It was easy to give up Greyhound and cold weather when Davis was commissioned to design and build figureheads for sailing yachts at his waterfront studio in downtown Miami. This became his home base for a decade. He opened an experimental gallery, contributing to major nightclub art environments and installations during the South Beach art explosion. Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine hired the gallery and their bicentennial edition Coupe de Ville complete with shark teeth and goat skulls on a two-week mission; a photographic art investigation of the city's art and nightlife.

Easing his way back to green and serenity, north Florida and solitude developed his confident, free form approach to the classical styles and themes he was devoted to in his youth. His series of 16-foot running horses is a testament to this. Skills of 16th century metallurgy aided by the industrial revolution cradles his technique of multiple heatings and hammering form. Brazing over castings and copper and brass sheet, results in a very life-like outer "skin" then supported by steel and copper armatures.

His work with the Kessler Collection, the kesslercollection.com, includes life-size "extreme" mountain climbers ascending a 60-foot atrium for their hotel Vail, as well as commissions for their other properties in Savannah, and Dubuque. His work can be found at galleries in Nantucket, New York City, Miami and Pasadena.

Living and learning, his time is spent in his warehouse studios at The Dance Project, near downtown Tampa, and at project locations in Colorado. New England and New York.