Audrey Phillips
PHOTO BY FRANK BUSBY
Delicately balanced between expressive chaos and a palpable sense of calm, the paintings of Audrey Phillips draw you in to explore the rich complexity of her work and her life. Working primarily from an internal place of intuition and exploration, Phillips approaches her large canvases with a spirit of play, unburdened by attachment to outcome, allowing the painting surface to simply and freely happen. Then, through a weaving back and forth between drawing and painting, visual conversations begin to emerge; all leading to an unknown destination that relies strongly on a steadfast trust in a naturally unfolding painting process. Steadily building a visual dialogue, Phillips juxtaposes energetic mark marking with large areas of expansive calm and a dynamic composition starts to develop—one that stirs up a remembrance of a vision from deep within—creating an experience that immerses the viewer into a world of possibility. Phillips has spent most of her life in Florida where the landscape captivated the artist from a formative age. Observing the expansive sky and the far-reaching vistas of the ocean augmented her ability to see in the abstract and also encouraged personal reflection, making her strongly attuned to the beautiful intelligence and power of nature. As in the works of Joan Mitchell (American, 1925-1992), Phillips often utilizes diptychs and triptychs as a way to powerfully present her gestural abstraction and expand her compositions. The oscillation between hints of the twentieth-century art historical canon’s style and her own distinctive mark-making reinforces the significance of Phillips’ work. Her paintings are at once her own, but also a part of a larger conversation about the trajectory of American painting. In Phillips’ paintings one is touched by dynamic gestures and evocative color—a welcome opportunity in an anxiety-filled world. Phillips’ mark-making invites the viewer in to explore the healing power of art and bask in its ability to restore and achieve a transcendent state of mind. —Amy Galpin, Ph.D., Curator of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum of Rollins College
Happiness Out the Corner of My Eye | 48” x 48” | Acrylic Mixed Media | ©Audrey Phillips
Private residence, Orlando, FL. Courtesy of Fine Arts 807
Private residence, Tampa, FL. Courtesy of Baisden Gallery
Private residence, Minneapolis, MN. Courtesy of Circa Gallery
The Weight of an Unforgettable Moment | 72” x 54” | Acrylic Mixed Media | ©Audrey Phillips
Cosmic Carnival | 48” x 36” | Acrylic Mixed Media | ©Audrey Phillips
Tampa, FL, Courtesy of Baisden Gallery
Remembrances of a Place Eternal | 38” x 53” | Acrylic Mix ed Media | ©Audrey Phillips
Corporate Collection, Tampa, FL. Courtesy of Baisden Gallery
Cashmere Cloud | 30” x 48” | Acrylic Mixed Media | ©Audrey Phillips
BIO: Audrey Phillips lives and works in Central Florida. She received her Bachelor’s of Fine Art from the University of Florida. Audrey has exhibited in solo and group shows in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, California, Texas, New Mexico and New York City. SOLO EXHIBITS: 2016 2015 2014 2014 2011 2009
Arts on Douglas Fine Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL Florida School of the Arts, Palatka, FL Circa Gallery, Minneapolis, MN Baisden Gallery, Tampa, FL Arts on Douglas Fine Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL Baisden Gallery, Tampa, FL
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS & JURIED EXHIBITIONS: 2016 2014 2013 2013 2012 2011 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2005 2005 2004 2003 2002
Group Show, Ormond Museum of Art, Ormond Beach, FL Paula Roland + Audrey Phillips two-person show, SMINK, Dallas, TX Cumulative Abstractions, Two-person show, SMINK, Dallas, TX Southern Lights Exhibit The Bascom, Highlands, NC Orange County Select, Art in Public Places, Orlando, FL Making Their Mark, Susan Eley Fine Art, New York, NY Art in Public Places, Florida Museum for Women Artists, Deland, FL Surface Tension: Art of Encaustic Painting, Arts on Douglas, New Smyrna Bch, FL Florida Contemporary, Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL, Michael Culver curator Winter Exhibition, Robert Allen Fine Art, Sausalito, CA Coleman Gallery of Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM 30/30 Juried Exhibition, Maitland Art Center, Maitland, FL Small Works Juried Exhibition, Red Dot Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Artist of the Month, Orlando Museum of Art Shop, Orlando, FL Two-person exhibition, Mt. Dora Center for the Arts, Mt. Dora, FL Two-person exhibition, The Atlantic Center for Arts, Harris House, New Smyrna Beach, FL
COLLECTIONS: Castlelake, Minneapolis and London Marriott Hotels, Orlando Florida Anheiser-Busch, Orlando Florida
Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLP Collection, Tampa Florida Kimmins Contracting Corp., Tampa Florida Private Collection of Maitland Art Center, Maitland Florida 55 West Condominiums, Orlando Florida
PRESS: 2012 2011 2010 2010 2010 2010 2009 2008 2007
Studio Visit Magazine, Published by Open Studios Press Tampa Tribune, “Painting though the pain”, Esther Hammer L.I.F.E. documentary, Public Broadcast Orange TV, Orlando FL, Bill Suchy documentarian AARP Magazine, “Inner Genius” article by Jamie Katz Expressive Drawing video, Stephen Menick, PBS stations and AARP website, ongoing Expressive Drawing book by Steven Aimone Orlando Magazine, “A Growing Abstraction”, Josh Garrick Orlando United Arts Magazine, “The Art of Giving”, Sandra Carr Orange TV, Profiled Artist Video documentary, Bill Suchy documentarian
HONORS & RECOGNITIONS: Selected by State of Florida | Creative Capital Foundation Professional Development Retreat sponsored by State of FL; Division of Cultural Affairs, May 2007 & May 2010 First Place Purchase Award, 30/30 Show, Maitland Art Center, Maitland FL, Dorothy Gillespie, curator Artist of the Month, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando FL
Stirred to Stay | 48” x 48” | Acrylic Mixed Media | ©Audrey Phillips
I remember the first time I held my breath, jumped in and opened my eyes underwater. I floated effortlessly in a warm body of water, enveloped by something much larger than myself yet mysteriously familiar and comforting. When I opened my eyes, I was able to see but the visual experience was otherworldly, blurred and beautiful, peaceful, solitary—one that engaged more than the eye. It was a different way of seeing, one that employed all the senses and immersed me in a wholly different sensory experience. In the studio, my process mimics this childhood experience. Suspended in a transcendent space, the painting process allows me to tap into my senses and reveal an internal language that is both personal and universal—creating softly-focused, yet very familiar realities that I have deeply perceived but never identified. Through a weaving of drawing and painting, the immersion into endless possibilities begins. Lines extend from my body to create the space—continually layered, pushed back or muted creating an ever-changing shift on the picture plane—creating a new ‘somewhere’ to explore. Elegantly projected lines and marks overlap one another, creating a sense of depth and discourse with the void—often guiding you to the edges, transcending the boundaries of the picture plane, extending us into a larger place of being, asking the viewer to stretch. These works are fluid and moving, and as with most abstract work, they are better felt and observed, rather than fully understood. The colors, mark-making, and highly-activated canvas create a final experience that comes into view more as a fleeting memory or something seen out of the corner of your eye, a blurring of sorts—stirring up a remembrance of a vision from deep within, one that measures the experience less as cerebral but more sensing and intuitive. The art making reminds me that I am a part of the exuberant and always changing energy that is life. Together with the paint, brushes, and the surface, a transformation takes place within myself and on the canvas. As with life, I find both the journey and the outcome endlessly intriguing.