Zora Murff
for I prefer to die with my head held high (do not weep for me, but fight in my stead), 2024, Mixed Media Collage, 64×80 inches
Zora J Murff is an Oregon-based artist and educator attempting to help facilitate liberation from anti-Blackness. He uses his creative practice to aid in consciousness raising to the material conditions created inside of the prism of imperialism. He uses provocative imagery and practices photography expansively, stretching it across disciplines to create relational opportunities between the self and the visual. He strives to speak plainly about visual culture and its entanglement with race, capitalism, and other forms of exploitation and domination.
Murff (b. 1987, Des Moines, Iowa) has created multiple books of his work including his latest monograph, True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) published by Aperture Foundation. His work has been widely exhibited and collected by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, LACMA, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the V&A Museum. His first museum solo exhibition, RACE/HUSTLE, opens at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in December 2025.