Gavin Murphy is a lecturer in Art History and Critical Theory at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. He has previously lectured at the University of Ulster and been an Associate Lecturer for the Open University.

Gavin Murphy is a lecturer in Visual Culture and Critical Theory at Atlantic Technological University and Programme Chair of its MA in Creative Practice. His academic specialism is in Irish and European art from c18th to the present with particular reference to historical relations between aesthetics and politics. He completed his doctorate in 1998 with a thesis examining the work of three English artists dealing with the political conflict in Northern Ireland: Terry Atkinson, Richard Hamilton and John Keane.

Gavin has published regularly on contemporary visual arts and photographic practice for over 30 years. Journal publications include Irish Studies, Irish Studies Review, Third Text, Circa Art Magazine, Source Photographic Review, VAN and Printed Project. He has contributed the essay ‘New Media Art in Ireland’ to The Art and Architecture of Ireland, Volume V: Twentieth Century (Yale University Press and Royal Irish Academy), a chapter on Conceptual Art to Irish Art 1920-2020 Perspectives on Change (Royal Irish Academy), and an essay on Surrealism to Sources in Irish Art 2 (Cork University Press). Two entries for the Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks series were published in the Irish Times and appear in Fintan O’Toole’s book of the same title.

Forthcoming publications include an essay on Irish Art 1916-1922 for the Routledge Companion to Irish Art (Routledge 2024). Gavin has sat on the Board of Directors for TULCA Visual Arts Festival (1913-1919) and has recently taken up a position on the Board for Galway Arts Centre.