FREDERICK PHILLIPS
“Perhaps when we are looking at any work of art, as well as asking, ‘What does it mean?’ we should maybe be asking ourselves, ‘What does it make me feel?’As an artist, I believe that art should not be formulated, but rather, felt into being - and that a positive emotional experience should be exchanged between the artist and the viewer. Creativity is a process of meditation; through meditation we can reach beyond ‘what is’ to the reality behind appearances”.- Frederic Phillips
“Originally, back in the 1970’s when I was at art school, I was inspired by the Surrealist artists and even today, my paintings are not realistic portraits of the world about me. My work is about memory: I don’t paint what I have seen, but the memory of what I have seen.” - Frederic Phillips
Born in England’s pre-eminent ceramics manufacturing city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire in 1953, Frederick Phillips studied Fine Art at Burslem College of Art. At art school, he first discovered the art of Surrealism and found that the Surrealists opened his eyes to a new way of seeing the world. In 1974 Frederick graduated with a BA Degree in Fine Art and, following successful exhibitions in the Midlands, in 1981 he moved to London and began exhibiting his work in galleries there. In 1990 he was awarded a visa as an 'Artist of Exceptional Merit' by the USA and moved to Chicago where he lived and worked for almost 20 years. In 1996 he was invited to lecture on 'Dream and Reality in Art' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and in 2000, ‘Quintessence: The Art Of Frederick Phillips’, a book on his life and his art was published in America. Exhibitions of the artist's work have been held in London, Chicago, Boston, New York, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong and his work is now in private and corporate collections throughout the world.
