BRENDAN MURPHY has made a name for himself on the international art stage and in May the contemporary artist and Providence native returned home to unveil one of his latest works and kick off a world tour. The 4-foot Love Matters bear sculpture marks the first installation in Murphy’s global public art series “Love Matters Everywhere.”
The series is meant to serve as a beacon of optimism and love, transforming a private space into a community symbol of healing and hope. The sculpture is part of Murphy’s evolving BOONJI universe, rooted in the belief that creativity generates positive energy. The unveiling took place on April 30 at the edge of Brown University’s campus near Thayer Street, where Murphy’s artistic journey began.
How has your artistic perspective changed since you began your journey, and in what ways does this Providence installation reflect who you are now versus who you were then? Providence shaped me in ways I couldn’t have articulated when I was living here. Growing up near Brown, RISD [Rhode Island School of Design], Thayer Street, creativity was everywhere but not something I saw as a career.
Where I came from, you played sports, competed and worked hard. So, I went from professional athlete to Wall Street trader, and it wasn’t until 9/11 that something cracked open. I drove to my cabin in Rhode Island and just started painting. No training. No plan. Just an enormous need to say something. Who I was then was searching for a language. Who I am now has found one. The tour starting here, that’s a full circle.
What life experiences influenced the creation of the BOONJI universe, and how do they manifest in the Love Matters bear beyond symbolism? BOONJI was born out of a real reckoning with identity and possibility. The character – an astronaut who launches and never returns, landing in the BOONJI galaxy – that’s autobiography. I left Wall Street, left a version of myself that made sense to everyone else, and ended up somewhere I hadn’t planned. The journey is about who’s inside the suit and what they feel.
The Love Matters bear carries that same core but strips away the cosmic armor. The spaceman is the unknown, the leap. The bear is the softest version of that same idea – warmth, connection, choosing openness over fear. It is love, made physical.
What conversations or reactions do you hope the Providence community will have with the sculpture? What I hope is that people start to own it. That a kid walks past it every day and years from now, when something hard happens, they remember standing next to something that said Love Matters and believed it for a second.
As this is the first installation in the “Love Matters Everywhere” series, how will future cities shape or reinterpret the work, and what determines where it goes next? Love matters everywhere. But what that means in Providence is different from what it will mean in Miami, in Oslo, in Perth. The form travels. The feeling gets filtered through wherever it lands.
What determines where it goes next is a combination of philanthropic resonance, community partnerships and the right cultural moment.
