Written by Bronte Teal

We are pleased to announce that Zivarna Murphy is the Holding Space: Studio Support artist for 2026.

Over the next seven months, Humber Street Gallery staff will be working closely with Zivarna to shape her residency and support her in building a body of new work for an exhibition with us in October 2026. The studio space, located in Juice Studios, will provide Zivarna with the space and time to expand her creative practice, encouraging new material experiments and an investigation into the work she makes.

This residency forms part of Holding Space, a new programme of activity at Humber Street Gallery where we trial new approaches and work flexibly with what we programme, produce and support.

Speaking about her residency, Zivarna said:

“I am absolutely delighted to be the Holding Space: Studio Support artist for 2026. I’m so excited to be able to understand my practice as a studio practice and see how my practice develops over the next seven months. I am really excited to be part of the Juice studio community and to be able to invite people in and be able to take part in Hull Open Studios. I am also looking forward to check-ins and studio visits by Alex and Lauren from Humber Street Gallery.

“I have never had a studio before and have always worked from home, so I’m really looking forward to having space to make a mess and experiment in a way I can’t at home. I’m looking forward to spontaneous moments of conversation and observations that I wouldn’t get while working at home. I’m also excited to be able to continue my love of printmaking and see how this will fit within my practice.

“I can’t wait to exhibit the outcomes of my residency in October. I think this will be transformative for me and my practice.”

Alex shared:

“Zivarna’s expressive approach to ceramics and her material connection with the East Yorkshire coast demonstrates an interesting and formative relationship with making. Her nuanced ability to bring coastal spaces into conversation with ceramic histories and material research reflects her thoughtful and considered practice.

“We’ve been fortunate to support Zivarna’s development as an artist through her time on INTER_CHANGE, Humber Street Gallery’s previous artist development programme. We’ve seen how Zivarna has developed a distinctive voice as an artist facilitator, working with organisations such as 87 Gallery and The HERD. Over the past year she has worked as the artist facilitator for Early Bods, our early years learning programme, nurturing a considered approach to working with clay in a playful environment.

“This is a pivotal moment for Zivarna to engage with a new studio practice. The seven months of cost-covered studio time will provide her with the space to experiment with new approaches to ceramics and develop a new body of work. We look forward to support Zivarna with studio time and curatorial support, and we hope this will help to further establish her artistic voice in regional and national conversations.”

About Zivarna Murphy:

Zivarna is a research-based conceptual ceramic artist, having trained in Medical Anthropology and holding a PhD in Human Sciences she brings emergent themes from her research around the social aspects of body and organ donation, namely loss, grief, transformation, and emotion, into her ceramic vessels. On visits to her local East Yorkshire coastline, she observes the erosion and loss of this landscape body as a metaphor for human loss. Zivarna hand-forms her tactile vessels from stoneware and porcelain, layered with eroded wild boulder clay and impressed shells, rocks and fossils, all gathered from this coastline, imbuing each piece with a strong sense of place and connection. The forms draw upon structures she sees in her local landscape such as fossilised shell bodies, ebbing cliffs and sea formed rocks. She is interested in firing as a transformative process and the becoming of the vessel body.

Website: www.zivarnamurphyceramics.wordpress.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/zivarnamurphyceramics/