Pat Phillips’ paintings combine personal and historical imagery into surreal juxtapositions, drawing on his experience living in America to meditate on complex questions of race, class, labor and a militarized culture. Phillips, who grew up primarily in a small town in Louisiana, found his way to art through painting and photographing boxcars. He embraces this entry point, creating paintings that discuss the Americana subculture, as well as the current social and political threads running through American culture. His works often contain references to confederate flags, fences, and guns—all objects that suggest the violent underpinnings of this country and its institutions.
Pat Phillips (b. 1987 Lakenheath, England) was raised in Louisiana. In 2019, he presented work at the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Solo exhibitions include Consumer Reports, Jeffrey Deitch, New York; Told You Not to Bring That Ball, Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA; and Summer Madness; M+B, Los Angeles, CA. Recent group shows include Knowing Who We Art: The Contemporary Dialogue, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; “Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts,” Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; We Fight to Build a Free World, The Jewish Museum, New York; NEW at NOMA: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; and THIS IS AMERICA, Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. In 2017, he received a Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant. Phillips has also participated in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. Phillips’ first publication Pat Phillips: Quality Control will be released in June 2023. He is a current fellow at the Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA and his work will be included in the forthcoming 2024 exhibition Black Like That: Our Lives As Living Praxis. His work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL; and New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA, among others. Pat Phillips lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.