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Ruth Philo

Sudbury
Contemporary painter
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My paintings explore abstraction through colour, light and surface; work combines inner and outer worlds with conscious and unconscious elements. Sometimes emerging from experiences of place and walking, the paintings convey a sensory experience whilst also being concerned with the materiality of paint and process. As Maurice Merleau Ponty wrote 'How would the painter or poet express anything other than his (her) encounter with the world' G A Johnson 'The Merleau Ponty Aesthetics Reader: Philosophy & Painting' (Northwestern University Press, Illinois, 1993:176).

I am based in a live/work space in Sudbury, Suffolk where I also run an artist-led project Pasture Project Space, that offers research residencies. In 2022-23 I received an ACE DYCP grant to research colour and paint, with a residency at PADA Studios, Barreiro, Portugal. From this project I developed a montly podcast talking with painters about their relationship with colour 'A Geography of Colour'. This year I'm taking part in the Mark Rothko 2023 International Painting Symposium and Residency at the Mark Rothko Centre, Daugvapils, Latvia.

A member of Contemporary British Painting, I regularly exhibit in the UK and abroad.  Exhibitions have included the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Jerwood Drawing Prize, Solo shows at M2 Gallery and Westminster Reference Library, Lonfon 2 Person show with Yves Beaumont, Studio 1.1, London, Contemporary Masters from Britain: 80 British Painters of the 21st Century, Contemporary British Painting a touring exhibition in China, Brentwood Stations of the Cross, Highlights from the Collection, Komechak Art Gallery, Chicago, USA,Paintlounge, Sluice Exchange, Kühlhaus, Berlin,Made in Britain: 82 Painters of the 21st Century, Priseman Seabrook Collection at the National Museum, Gdánsk, Poland, Alive in the Universe film screening at the Venice Biennale, Palazzo Pesaro Papfava, Venice, 

MA in Fine Art (2011) Norwich University of the Arts, BA History of Art, University of Warwick (1978)

 

 

 

 

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