Tara attended University College Dublin, where she received an honours degree in History of Art & French and a postgraduate Diploma in Arts Administration. Upon graduating in 1994, she began working at Suzanne Macdougald’s Solomon Gallery and was promoted to Gallery Director in 1997. In 2013 Macdougald decided to retire after 40 successful years in the business and Tara immediately took over the gallery on an independent basis. She is one of the founder member of CAGA, Ireland's Contempoary Art Gallery Association.
Now celebrating thirty years at the Solomon, Murphy has helped develop the space into one of the most successful galleries in the country, representing over 40 contemporary painters and sculptors including Rowan Gillespie, John Behan RHA, Eilis O'Connell RHA, Anthony Scott, Corban Walker & Comhghall Casey and the internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. The Solomon also deals in early 20th century art and often showcases work by Jack B. Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, Sir John Lavery, Louis le Brocquy, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Lucian Freud, amongst others. In 2014 to coincide with ID2015, the Year of Irish Design, Tara established PORTFOLIO @ Solomon - a second gallery dedicated to Irish design & craft - in conjunction with the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland and The Doyle Collection hotel group.
Internationally the Solomon has participated in numerous artfairs in London and the USA and in 2004 the gallery brought a major exhibition of contemporary Irish Art to Cape Town in South Africa.
With a particular emphasis on sculpture at the Solomon, Tara has been involved in major commissions and installations of many public sculptures in Dublin city, such as Rowan Gillespie’s Famine group on City Quay and Vivienne Roche’s Iris at the National College of Ireland in the Docklands. She has curated and produced four major outdoor sculpture events, including the hugely successful Secret Garden public exhibition at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens (2008) which featured over 120 sculptures by 60 Irish and international artists including Barry Flanagan, Bernar Venet and Henry Moore. Tara also joint-curated the temporary public art space on Grafton Street in conjunction with Dublin City Council Arts Office and has curated numerous exhibitions for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the LexIcon Library.
In her spare time, Tara is a voluntary ski instructor at the Ski Club of Ireland, Kilternan and is a keen sailor in Dun Laoghaire.