The Noble Maritime Collection has staged a new exhibition called Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975-2025, a 50-year retrospective of the Staten Island artist’s explorations of the New York’s harbor, featuring four dozen works.

The museum hosted an opening reception on the evening of Thursday, July 17, attended by over 100 people.

Bill Murphy was born on Staten Island in 1952. He recalls, “My mother tells me I drew a lot as a small child. My first real memory of drawing was in kindergarten, painting a picture of Zorro, a popular TV character at the time.”

The artist continued, “A profound early influence on my way of thinking was the comic books of the 1960s, in particular the work of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, both drawing for Marvel Comics. Later, the psychedelic poster art of the Fillmore East would form my early sense of design.”

Bill Murphy, *John A. Noble,* charcoal on grey toned paper, 1982, Collection of Staten Island Museum

The work in this exhibition dates from shortly thereafter in 1975, and spans 50 years of Murphy’s explorations of the local waterfront, and includes drawings, etchings, lithographs, and paintings. Murphy’s affinity for New York’s working waterfront and his penchant for printmaking put him in contact with artist and sailor John A. Noble (1913-1983), the museum’s namesake, who at that point was at the end of his life and career.

“In retrospect, after five decades, Murphy’s body of work parallels Noble’s in its preservation of vestiges of New York City and its waterways which are forever changing with time, tides, and development,” commented the museum’s Executive Director Ciro Galeno, Jr.

The museum’s staff asked Murphy to write down his stories and memories about each piece of his work, and as the show’s title conveys, it is also a collection of waterfront tales shared via the exhibition labels.

One of the earliest works in the exhibition is the 1977 etching Leaving the Island, which presents the perspective of rider on the Staten Island Ferry as it disembarks from the St. George terminal. About this piece, Murphy notes, “I was well into my 40s when the concept finally hit me that I was an island dweller, and being such, I am inherently different than probably 99% of the rest of the world. Growing up on Staten Island, I accepted all the oddities of Island life as natural, so the idea of being an ‘Islander’ never registered with me. Eventually I became aware that the ramifications of living in such a clearly delineated area and the necessity of having a bridge or ferry to travel on must carry a psychological weight with it. I think this is a factor in making Staten Island such a political and cultural oddity.”

Of his 2002 etching, Oh! Gowanus!, Murphy recalls his first visit to the Brooklyn canal: “I had been to the Gowanus once before, in the early 90s to make an etching. John Noble was the one who first told me to go there. ‘Don’t go to Europe, Murphy, go to the Gowanus Canal,’ he implored when I told him I wanted to go on a drawing tour of France and England. And he was right—it was and still is a visual treat for an artist who likes the old, industrial world.”

The artist will also share more of these stories in person at a gallery talk on Sunday, September 14 at 2 PM.

Murphy is considered one of Staten Island’s most renowned artists. He received his MFA from Vermont College, and also studied at the Art Students League of New York and the Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. He was a Professor of Visual Arts at Wagner College from 1984 through 2019, and was Chairperson of the Art Department from 1998 to 2003. He currently teaches drawing at the Art Students League of New York.

Entrance to the long-term exhibition is included with pay-what-you-wish admission during regular museum hours, Wednesday through Sunday 12 to 5 PM, with extended hours to 6 PM on Thursdays in July and August 2025. Last admittance is 15 minutes prior to closing.

The Noble Maritime Collection is located at Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island’s North Shore. Take the S40 bus from the St. George Ferry Terminal to Snug Harbor Gate or the S44 to Henderson Avenue/Devon Avenue or Kissel Avenue.

Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975-2025 was curated by Ciro Galeno, Jr. and Megan Beck, with exhibition design by Michael McWeeney and special thanks to Kathy Cracchiolo.

This exhibition was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and by a grant from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.