Meet Jeremy Phillips | Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeremy Phillips and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeremy, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I liked to draw and paint like other kids when I was very young, but it was in high school in suburban Philadelphia that I became fascinated with art history and painting in particular. Seeing works by Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly and Marcel Duchamp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as discovering the Bay Area Figurative artists like Richard Diebenkorn all led to a deeper engagement with painting. I was mainly working, though, with ceramics for those years and it was not until I was living in London in 2003 and had no access to a clay studio that I dove into a painting practice myself. If I couldn’t buy paintings I loved, but I would try to make them on my own. I had my first show in Camden Town, London and have never stopped making new work. I came back to Asheville in 2008 and began showing work locally the next year. For me painting is a way of life, where the current work and new ideas are always on my mind and leading to further explorations. I’ve developed several different bodies of work, digging in to different ideas with many permutations and variations. I like to see where a painting idea can go and how far.
Then to be able to share these with people who can enjoy them and have art in their homes or places of business that add beauty and thoughtfulness and style to their lives is a great joy. Artistic practice feeds itself and is a rich and satisfying way to life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Why make paintings anymore? For me they are something solid in a digital world, images that linger long after the media circus has flown by, perpetual presences that invite you to slow down rather than flit off to the next piece of eye candy. A painting should be something you can live with and that keeps talking back. When I think of painting in the internet age, the physical qualities of the work become central – the surface texture, the way the light plays off the paint, the accidents of application, the revelations of underlayers, the juxtaposition of thickness and color, the material of the support, even the underlying stretchers.
Content, beyond the play of form, is a relished addition. The interiors of rooms or apartment blocks, the visual games of optical illusions and impossible shapes, binary code, stacks; these are prompts for contemplation.
Painting is also about a conversation with other art. Building on the work of artists like Sol Lewitt, Jasper Johns, Sigmar Polke, and older modernists like Edouard Vuillard, and Pierre Bonnard, I want to add my own voice to the questions modern art raises (like “What is a painting?”, “What is beautiful?” and “What kinds of things can be a subject for a painting?”, and “How can I used older images to make something new?”), and try to offer some of my own solutions.
I hope the results feed the eye as well as the mind, with a luscious use of oil paint, commercial fabrics, strong bright colors, and sharp lines. Sometimes deceptively simple and sometimes intriguingly complex, these visual puzzles intend to keep your eyes peeled.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I can’t speak to too much in Upstate SC, but if you want to make the trek up the mountain to Asheville, I got you covered. We’ll go hiking, grab a beer at the Wedge, visit some artist friends in the River Arts District, get dinner at Leo’s House of Thirst or Jargon in West Asheville, check out some openings if its a weekend and see some music at the Grey Eagle or maybe at Static Age, downtown.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First, I am so grateful for my wife, Elise Olson’s, continued support and interest in this major part of my life. She gets it and likes it and is my best critic, deepest admirer, and perpetual muse. And very loud thanks and admiration goes out to the Asheville art community and the folks like Aaron Tucker, Mark Flowers, Margaret Curtis, Kenn Kotara, Nava Lubelski, Ralston Fox Smith, Aaron Hill, Jeremy Russell, Alicia Armstrong and Randy Shull who have encouraged me, given me precious feedback and criticism, pushed me in new directions and joined me in our mutual journeys in painting. I am truly grateful for this rich and kind community.
And a final shout out to Kristina White of the new gallery, Spoonbill, on Greenville’s west side, where I’ll be joining the new group of gallery painters!

Website: jeremyphillipsart.com

Instagram: @jeremyphillipsart