The Yale Center For British Art
I am very proud to announce that ‘Shaman’ has joined the permanent collection of contemporary art at The Yale Center for British Art. The contemporary collection also includes work by Richard Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, David Hockney, Cornelia Parker, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye among others. An exhibition to mark this and other recent acquisitions will take place later this year:
Contemporary Art: Recent gifts and acquisitions. June – September 2019
The Yale Center for British Art
Conference: Made in Britain / Made in Poland. Selected issues of 21st century art
Friday 15th March 2019 from 10.00 am at the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts
I will be presenting a talk about my practice along with the other UK delegates Anna McNay, Narbi Price, Julian Brown, Dr Judith Tucker, Robert Priseman, and Dr Sian Bonnell, and Directors and Academicians of the Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts and The National Museum of Gdansk.
MADE IN BRITAIN – 82 Painters of the 21st Century
The National Museum, Gdansk, Poland, March – June 2019
Curated by Robert Priseman, Anna McNay, Malgorzata Taraszkiewicz-Zwolicka and Malgorzata Ruszkowska-Macur
Sponsored by The Gdańsk Business Club, the British Council and the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts, under the patronage of the British Ambassador to Poland and the Marshal of the Pomeranian Province.
IM/MATERIAL BODIES
Rye Creative Centre, Rye, April – May 2019
Sluice HQ, London, February – March 2019
Sharon Haward, Phil Illingworth, Paula MacArthur, Wendy Saunders
Curated by Paint Lounge
Black Squares
Saturation Point, London, April 2019
The Reductive Non-Objective Project (RNOP) exhibition ‘Black Squares’, curated by Billy Gruner, took place on 21 April 2019 as part of the Saturation Point Sunday Salon series. Gruner presented an international show of reductive work, which was hung for a day, facilitating in-depth conversations among an invited group of guests.
Review by Clare French
RNOP APELDOORN
Curated by Billy Gruner from Australia, the ‘Reductive Non Objective Project’ comes to ACEC Holland with an international selection of artists:
Karen Foss | Hans Hancock | Andrew Huston | Phil Illingworth | George Meertens | Patrick Morrissey | Theresa Poulton (UK) Richard Van der Aa (France / New Zealand), John Adair (UK / Australia), Karin Beyens (Belgium), Dima Gred (Russia), Andrew Huston (Italy / USA), Billy Gruner | Sarah Keighery (Australia), Roland Orepuk (France), Ivo Ringe (Germany), Willem van Ballegooyen | Bob Bonies | Lily de Bont | René Van den Bos | Iemke Van Dijk | Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog | Guido Nieuwendijk | Jan van der Ploeg | Clary Stolte | Aimee Terburg | Marije Vermeulen | Jan Maarten Voskuil | Riëtte Wanders | Guido Winkler (Netherlands)
A satellite event for the 2019 Grenoble Biennale of contemporary non objective art.
ACEC, Roggestraat 44, 7311 CD Apeldoorn, Netherlands
New Painting
Contemporary British Painting Members’ Exhibition, The Crypt, Marylebone St London, November 2018 – January 2019
Royal Society of Sculptors
I am now a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors!
Phil Illingworth MRSS
Testcard P
The Crypt, Marylebone St London, September 2017 – January 2018
Curated by Marco Cali, the theme of this exhibition is works that the artist feels are something new or different with their own practice over the year. These are not necessarily ‘finished’ as such, but instead provide stimulus to a discussion as to what has happened over the last twelve months. As such, they might be sketches, drawings or indeed completed canvases.
Anything Goes?
Art Bermondsey Project Space, London
25 July – 5 August 2017
Curated by Anna McNay, I will be exhibiting ‘Buddy Can You Paradigm’ and ‘Différance’ at this CBP group show in Bermondsey.
Panel discussion chaired by Anna McNay, with Lucy Cox, Phil Illingworth, Nicholas Middleton
The Ships Are Always There
Laura Fitzgerald / Phil Illingworth / Jay Rechsteiner / Kyung Hwa Shon
19 – 28 AUGUST 2017 CRATE, Margate, CT9 1EE
New works by four international artists are brought together in an exhibition that allows for a contemplative convergence of perspectives; trajectories and courses overlap, brief encounters are made, vanishing points are vague, horizons are hazy, but, the ships are always there…
Image: ‘Dear Prudence’ (detail) Phil Illingworth
Curated by Chiara Williams
Contemporary Masters From Britain – China
This exhibition presenting over 80 works including ‘Extra Heavy’ tours to four major venues across China:
The Yantai Art Museum, Yantai, China, July – August 2017
Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Museum, Nanjing, China, October 2017
Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing, China, November 2017
Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Tianjin, China, January 2018
Priseman Seabrook Collection: 21st Century British Painting joins ArtUK
My work is in the Priseman Seabrook Collection: 21st Century British Painting. The collection has been added to the ArtUK database, the online home for every public art collection in the UK. The ArtUK charity and it’s website represents a collaboration between over 3,200 British institutions.
Art UK is the operating name of the Public Catalogue Foundation.
Work joins permanent collection in China
‘Sediment I’ has joined the permanent collection of the Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing, China – one of China’s most important art museums.
Diary of a painting
Painter Terry Greene invites a fellow artist to keep a ‘Diary of a Painting’.
This fascinating and enlightening process introduces a work-in-progress, alongside a record of what the artist is reading at that time; what the artist was listening to as they worked, and what visually – exhibitions, movies, tv, etc. were perhaps taken in during the period, from start to finish of the life of the making of a painting.
Read more
Artist of the month
Visual Arts South West (VASW) is part of the national Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN)* initiated by the Arts Council of England. …
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Merge Visible
18 January – 20 March 2017
Curated by Charley Peters, Merge Visible brings together a group of British painters who…
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Saturation Point
‘Apocalypso’ reviewed by Annie O’Donnell
Phil Illingworth defines his practice as experimental, through the repeated testing-out of hypotheses…. Read more
Apocalypso – solo exhibition at Platform A
29 September – 3 November 2016
“Phil Illingworth’s practice encompasses the expanded fields of painting and drawing, three-dimensional works, and the conceptual. The one word he uses to define his practice is experimental.
There are two main factors behind Phil Illingworth’s painting practice:
the materials of painting; and the language used to describe it. Each of these has its own narrative, but when brought together (not unlike the portmanteau of the eponymous Apocalypso), these two elements provide for an extremely complex and convoluted relationship …”
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The Manchester Contemporary 2016
22 September – 25 September 2016
Platform A Gallery are exhibiting some of my work along with work by Robert Picciau and Nick Kennedy.
We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have
2 September – 1 October 2016
Alice Anderson, Phil Illingworth, Evy Jokhova
This exhibition takes its inspiration from ‘The Europeans’, a novel by Rye author Henry James on the 100th anniversary of his death. The exhibition is a contemporary reflection on James’ tale of the relationship between ex-pats who cling onto the traditions and etiquette of their homeland much more fiercely than their less restrained, visiting cousins.
The artists all explore ideas of boundaries, restraint and liberation and communicate their own personal responses using their own, unique visual languages. In bringing their works together at this particular time, curator Paula MacArthur seeks to create some resonance with current European issues and invites discussion from both personal and political viewpoints.
Exhibition details
And Ings
27th – 29th May 2016
Noho Studios, 46 Great Titchfield Street, London W1
Colin Booth, Stewart Geddes, Timothy Holt, Phil Illingworth, Paul Simon Richards and Michael Wall.
“These contemporaries challenge the viewer with the manipulation of familiar materials within their surroundings, asking questions, and perhaps making fun of, our relationship towards craft.
The works on show offer diverse approaches for appropriating construction within an artistic sphere, from two to three dimensions. The viewer is deliberately drawn into debate, is teased, and asked to judge as well as to navigate their way around a world in which boundaries are blurred, heightening our dependent bond to dexterity. Stemming from the historical values from the Young British Artist era in the late 1980’s, this multidisciplinary exhibition will bring these artists’ considerations on chance connections finely into focus.”
CBP Summer Exhibition
30 July – 15 October 2016
A group show of 40 artists marking the 40th anniversary of Quay Arts.
Contemporary British Painting
1 May 2016
I have been invited to join the Contemporary British Painting group, an artist led organisation which explores and promotes current trends in British painting through group exhibitions, talks, publications and building collections in art museums.
Contemporary British Painting
Aesthetica
14 April – 29 May 2016
‘Portrait of a king in several different positions’ has been long listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize. It will appear in the Anthology ‘Future Now’ and at the exhibition in York later this year.
6Gins
November 2015
‘Colony’ and ‘Portable Painting’ are in 6Gins at Royal Standard, Liverpool, curated and co-founded by James Worley and Lucy Brotherton.
Collaborators include Madeline Hall, Tine Wille, Helen Biles, Rose Wylie, Maria Zahle and Matthew Macaulay.
6Gins
Autocatalytic Future Games
June 2015
Playpaint (fellow Marmiters) have called together an outstanding group of artists for this exhibition at No Format Gallery. Artists include Ben Cove, Kiera Bennett, Mimei Thompson, Alison Pilkington, Tim Ellis, Sophia Starling, Clare Chapman, Dan Coombs, Virginia Verran, Jonathan Parsons, Lothar Goetz, Katrina Blannin, Andrew Seto, David…
Con/text
June 2015
Back in May I did a short interview for Con/text magazine. It is online here
The Influencers
November 2014
Guest curators select ‘The Influencers’ for this Axisweb feature. I have been selected by Tony Charles at Platform A Gallery along with Jo McGonigal and Nick Kennedy. I had the great pleasure of being in a group show last year at Platform A, along with Tony Charles, Deb Covell, Kate Davis, Annie O’Donnell, Boa Swindler, Alison Wilding, and Chiara Williams.
The Influencers
MRA Open Forum at Towner Gallery
June 2014
I will be discussing my practice for a Matt Roberts Arts Open Forum. The event is on 28th June, hosted by the Blue Monkey Network and Towner Gallery.
Hoax: Issue 3
My drawing ’17’ is included in the printed publication Hoax, “a counter-argument to the commonplace notion that art and creative writing are mutually exclusive”. Hoax launches in Glasgow in January 2014.
Tomorrow exhibition
I have been invited to take part in Tomorrow, curated by Timothy Holt and Jess White. The curators describe the exhibition as ‘An ambitious exhibition featuring new and recent work by inspirational artists who use found objects in the fabrication of their practices’. It opens at The Gallery in London in October.
Nom de Strip magazine
I was interviewed for an article in Nom de Strip in July this year whilst I was in France. Issue 4 of the magazine will be launched at a special event on 14 September.
Jerwood Drawing Prize
September 2013-April 2014
I’m very excited to have been selected for the 2013 Drawing Prize. Selected by Michael Craig-Martin RA, artist; Kate Brindley, Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art mima; and Charlotte Mullins, art critic, writer, broadcaster, and Editor of Art Quarterly, the exhibition opens at the Jerwood Space London on 11 September and goes on to tour to Newcastle, Plymouth and Canterbury.
North South Divine – Hobson’s Choice
This time last year Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, selected ‘Frightening Albert’ as his exhibition of the week. He has now selected North South Divine.
Contemporary Art Society
NORTH SOUTH DIVINE
Alison Wilding / Kate Davis / Annie O’Donnell / Phil Illingworth / Deb Covell / Tony Charles / Boa Swindler / Chiara Williams
“The exhibition addresses questions around civic language and art’s place alongside it, and the distinction between public and private space. Many of the works find common ground through the use of a modernist language that aims to investigate, critique and uncover. While also held together by shared processes and materials, the artists respond to their common art historical reference point individually, some with subversive wit, others through their use and juxtaposition of materials. This makes for an interesting dialogue between unity and simplicity on the one hand, and a more interrogative, questioning discourse on the other. Don’t miss this exhibition!”
Paul Hobson, Director, Contemporary Art Society
Catalogue with text by Kate Brindley, director, mima / Arnolfini
Sluice
To coincide with the launch of Sluice Publications, there will be a silent / blind auction at Hanmi Gallery in Fitzrovia, London, which will include one of my works. The auction will be open to the public to view and bid on from 22 October and will reach its conclusion during the reception on the evening of the 24th. Please do come along and support the project.
Marmite Painting Prize
This is one of the best around in my opinion, and I am delighted to have been selected. The 8-month exhibition tours the UK from December 2012.
The Marmite Prize
Central Art Gallery, Tameside
(14th December 2012 – 16th February 2013)
Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art
(1st March – 6th April 2013)
Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge
(12th April – 10th May 2013)
The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art
(20th May – 14th June 2013)
Tannery Arts at Drawing Room, London
(28th June – 20th July 2013)
Hobson’s Choice: Phil Illingworth, Frightening Albert at WW Gallery, Hatton Garden
Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, recommends his favourite exhibition of the week.
WW Gallery has recently opened a new space in a former jewellery workshop in the heart of the historic jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden with an inaugural show by British artist, Phil Illingworth. The exhibition brings together a group of sculptural works that explore the conventions and possibilities of paintings. Entitled ‘Frightening Albert’ it refers to the infamous psychological experiments conducted by behaviourist John B Watson which involved exposing a nine month old child Albert B to a series of stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers, observing the boy’s reactions before introducing disturbing noises to condition an emotional response. The exhibition takes unguarded curiosity as a point of departure, exposing the viewer to a series of works which are playfully attractive and intriguing but, in some cases, generate a form of low-grade anxiety in their materiality and format. All of the works tread a careful but attention-seeking line between sculpture and painting and return to Modernist agendas around the conventions of specific media. Canvas-like sculptures punctuate their flatness, turning their backs to the viewer to reveal their supports and become objects through a variety of formal and conceptual strategies, whilst signalling an overt desire to stimulate the sense in seductive combinations of materials, primary colours and perceptual tricks. A quirky body of work, with a sense of humour and child-like invitation to be surprised – but if you’re going to visit, the show closes this weekend!
Contemporary Art Society
Frightening Albert reviews
‘The two-room, L-shaped gallery, resplendent in its whiteness, could
indeed be mistaken for a lab, and it would be no great leap to imagine
oneself shut in there alone, left to play with the objects on display,
perhaps subject to video observation from afar, as part of some social
experiment.’
Anna McNay, roves and roams
‘Illingworth has taken a spanking new space and pathological terror and turned them into something witty, engaging and colourful, making this an auspicious start for WW Gallery mark two.’
Kate Weir, Spoonfed
‘Event of the week’ – Art Licks, April 9th
Frightening Albert
I am very proud to announce that my first London solo show is also the inaugural show at WW Gallery’s new space in Hatton Garden. The exhibition takes its name from the notorious Watson experiments of 1920 surrounding stimulus response and conditioning. The preview and launch party is on 10th April and the exhibition runs from 11th April to 5th May 2012
Frightening Albert at WW Gallery
Frightening Albert – dates extended
‘Following popular demand and numerous positive reviews, we are extending the current solo exhibition of new work by Phil Illingworth.’ WW Gallery. The exhibition now runs to 12th May 2012.
Catalogue with text by Paul Carey-Kent
Say What You See at Aspex
‘Say What You See’ starts with a single artwork. The exhibition grows piece by piece as another artwork, connected to the one before it, is added. ‘Ghost’ has been selected as the second piece. The exhibition is at Aspex, Portsmouth, from January 2011 until March 2012.
Morph Plinth
The brilliant, tiny, Morph Plinth. 14cm high, proposals for a specially made artwork are made via Twitter, and a new work is selected to go on top every few months. My little piece is scheduled to make special official (and unofficial) appearances at Frieze, Sluice Art Fair, and who knows where else in the near future…
Salon 2011
Following a very busy period in the studio, I am delighted to announce that I have again had a work selected for Salon at MRA in Vyner Street, London. The panel of judges were Patricia Bickers (Editor, Art Monthly), Pippa Hale (Director, Project Space Leeds), and Robert Leckie (Exhibitions Curator, Gasworks).
Exhibition in ARC at Aspex
I am very pleased to be exhibiting a number of works at the Artist Resource Centre at Aspex, Portsmouth. The works will be on view from December 2010 until March next year. Aspex
Salon
I have had a work selected for Salon 2010 at Matt Roberts Arts. The selected work is ‘Dad, dead’, a 3 dimensional drawing based on hand-made miniature facsimiles of some of my late father’s tools. The panel of judges were Peter Bonnell (Curator at Artsway), Kate MacGarry (Director, Kate MacGarry Gallery), and Richard Birkett (Curator, ICA).
John Moores Painting Prize
I am delighted to announce that I have had a work selected for the John Moores Painting Prize. ‘3D Painting No.1’ is the first in a new series of works. The judges were Ged Quinn, Alison Watt, Gary Hume, Goshka Macuga, and Sir Norman Rosenthal. The exhibition is at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, from 18 September 2010 to 3 January 2011.
Time
Group exhibition at WW Gallery, Queensdown Road, Hackney Downs, London E5 28 May – 4 July 2010
Time exhibition
Little Gods
‘Little Gods’ solo exhibition at Art Space Portsmouth runs from 16th to 27th November 2009. PV 20th November from 6pm. Please email me for details.
Come Together
‘Come Together’ is the inaugural exhibition of CoExist + Metal and runs from 11th September to 9th October 2009.
53rd Venice Biennale – ‘Travelling Light’
‘Travelling Light’ is an innovative Biennale collateral project showcasing 58 international artists including Maria Chevska, Kate Davis, Oona Grimes, Phil Illingworth, Evy Jokhova and Jarik Jongman. Featured by the British Council on the Artupdate map for the 53rd Venice Biennale, Travelling Light will first be exhibited in London at WW Gallery in Hackney Downs before being transported to Venice for the Biennale.
Travelling Light opened in London at WW Gallery from 14th – 28th May. From there it travelled along the trade route to Venice, a path historically well trodden by merchants and hedonists attracted to the trade and pleasure capital of Europe. From 6th – 10th June it was hung in a palazzo between the Accademia Galleries and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Additionally there was a special acoustic performance by Italian born Olivia Chaney at the London private view and by Veneto musician Alberto Grollo at the Venice private view. Travelling Light