Compadres
butch Murphy, metal sculptor
July 12 – Fall | 2025
Opening Reception | 5pm
at the Charro Jerry Diaz & Family Horse Show + Sin Fronteras Concert
butch’s sculpture practice came late in life as he searched for a meaningful form of expression and creativity while leaving behind a professional life as a pulmonologist.
-source: butchsmetalimages.com
Butch Murphy is a welder and sculptor who combines new and found carbon steel to fabricate his sculptures.
In the words of the artist:
“I’m the creator, fabricator and abstract metal sculptor, autodidact by training, combining new and found carbon steel using what some would describe primitive tools producing representational or somewhat figurative abstractions…..”
In Compadres, butch Murphy places five equestrian sculptures across Volland’s grounds. Rendered in cut steel, each horse form captures a fleeting gesture—head lifted, legs in stride, backs arched in motion—imbuing the stillness of sculpture with the energy of movement.
The exhibition’s title, Compadres—a Spanish word meaning close companions or trusted partners—evokes the deep relationship between rider and horse, artist and material, people and place. The horses are not heroic or ornamental; they are companions—steadfast, grounded, and alive in their own quiet way.
Some of the works have been left to rust, their surfaces surrendering to the elements. Others remain raw or newly painted, offering a spectrum of transformation that mirrors natural cycles of aging and endurance.
The artist brings a deep knowledge of materials and a poetic sensibility to this installation. The horses of Compadres feel less like objects and more like presences—watchful, weathered, and patient.
Through these forms, Murphy invites us to reconsider companionship not just as relationship, but as presence—what it means to stand beside, to travel with, to endure together. Out on the prairie, under wide skies, Compadres honors those silent, loyal forces that carry us forward.
