About Molly Murphy Adams

Molly Murphy Adams is an exhibiting artist, scholar, and community maker and advocate specializing in contemporary sculptural beadwork.  Murphy Adams was raised in western Montana and earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts from The University of Montana in 2004, and a master of Art History from Oklahoma State University in 2023.

Murphy Adams’ work illustrates the blending of culture, identity, and histories.  Murphy Adams freely borrows from multiple disciplines to create fiber and mixed media arts pieces reflecting her mixed indigenous and settler background and traditions. 

Currently Murphy Adams is focusing on merging her art history research and art making with advocacy and work with collections and institutions that currently hold and care for Indigenous beadwork material culture and art.

My work serves as a cultural narrative, an expression of personal experience, and an exploration of form and function.  I choose to use specific materials and designs as a way to connect with tribal art forms from antiquity while embracing the reality of my mixed heritage.  My designs originate from older, more traditional sources while material choices reflect the effect trade goods had on native aesthetic and fashion.  These physical elements create a specific textural and tactile experience necessary to tell my stories.  The liberties I take with materials, line quality, and design elements reflect my interest in contemporary art and the development of abstraction in the Western art tradition.  I use the visual language of color and shape to articulate new observations on politics, history, and identity.