Pearl Murphy is an artist whose practice moves between the wild and the intimate between the ancient horse cultures of Central Asia and the quiet memory of her own childhood among the ponies of the New Forest. Growing up between London and the forest, Pearl developed an early reverence for animals and open landscapes. Horses became her constant companions - symbols of instinct, freedom, and the unspoken connection between human and nature.

In recent years, this lifelong fascination has drawn her to Kyrgyzstan, where she became captivated by kok boru, the fierce equestrian game played across the steppe. What began as curiosity grew into a deep obsession; Pearl has since returned multiple times, immersing herself in the lives of the riders and their horses, tracing the threads between her own past and the nomadic equestrian traditions she encountered there.

Her paintings reflect this evolving dialogue between tenderness and wildness, loss and resilience, childhood memory and mythic endurance. Each work carries the echo of hooves on stone, the dust of the steppe, and the spectral presence of her own passed horse, whose spirit rides quietly through her practice.

Drawing on her background in film and photography, Pearl’s compositions often hold a cinematic stillness as if capturing a fleeting moment between motion and memory. Her aesthetic remains influenced by her early exposure to fashion and performance, weaving together imagery that feels both timeless and contemporary, instinctive and dreamlike.

Through her recent Kyrgyzstan-based work, Pearl invites viewers into a space where geography, emotion, and mythology converge a visual journey that explores the sacred bond between human and horse, and the landscapes that shape both.