Susannah Phillips
From January 13th to February 13th, Lori Bookstein Fine Art is pleased to present recent paintings by Susannah Phillips. The eighteen works on view include a new series of interiors and still lifes, as well as nighttime landscapes, a new motif for the artist.
An inveterate observer of still life arrangements and interior spaces, Phillips tends to revisit a specific installation or view multiple times, sometimes working from it for years at a stretch. This constancy of subject matter, along with stringent restrictions of palette, makes the variations of mood the artist achieves all the more studied and remarkable. Phillips works for the most part in subtle shades of gray, but her able manipulations of warm and cool, and small infusions of color, are employed to maximum effect.
Phillips is unequivocally indebted to the still lifes of Giorgio Morandi, but while Morandi’s works tend towards completely isolated worlds, Phillips’ compositions often work as both intimate interiors and expansive abstractions. Karen Wilkin, in a 2005 Hudson Review article, describes the work as “‘early Gorky meets Morandi,’ but I don't mean that to be dismissive. From Gorky…she has learned how to suggest the weight and mass of the human body with flat, simplified shapes and strategically placed sweeps of line. From Morandi, she has learned how to construct lucid, rock-solid, geometric tabletop worlds. And she has combined what she learned into an intimatist approach all her own.”
Susannah Phillips was born in 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts but was raised in London. She attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London, studying under William Coldstream and Euan Uglow. In 1993 Phillips moved to Montreal, Canada, where she resides and works. Her paintings have been in group exhibitions in London, New York and Provincetown, MA, and are part of numerous private collections.
“Susannah Phillips: Interiors, Still Lifes and Landscapes” will be on view through February 13th, 2010. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30am to 6:00pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or info@loribooksteinfineart.com.