OPENING RECEPTION:
Thursday, 5 November 2026, 6 - 8 PM
Ambrose Rhapsody Murray b. 1996 is a multidisciplinary artist with roots in Florida and North Carolina in the American South. Through sewing, painting, installation, material experimentation, film and collaborative projects, her work investigates the colonial undercurrents of our lives, the charged symbology of black feminine bodies, and the ephemeral and layered qualities of memory and remembering. Ambrose earned her Bachelor’s in Black Studies from Yale in 2018 and her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2026. Her work has been featured in Cultured Magazine, Artsy, SEEN and Galerie Magazine. She is a US Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Black Rock Senegal alum, and Forbes 30 under 30 honoree. Her work has exhibited across the US and abroad, and lives in the permanent collection of The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Montclair Art Museum.
For her upcoming exhibition "Knoxville Girl“ at Galerie Kandlhofer in Vienna, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray turns to the early folk music traditions of Western North Carolina, where she grew up.
"Knoxville Girl” is a traditional Appalachian murder ballad with roots in 17th-century British broadsides. It tells the story of a young woman who steps outside the boundaries of respectability and becomes a victim to her murderous lover. The murder ballads act as a form of cultural instruction, reminding young men and women of the boundaries of their behavior in polite society. Through a cheerful, almost sing-songy melody, the song tells a story of tragedy and romance, revealing the hidden expectations that shape gender roles and romantic love. “Murder ballads interested me because they are often told from the perspective of a man, revealing the normalized nature of gender-based violence and femicide,” the artist explains.
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our website, or the artist’s website.