Michael Phillips - The Purples and The Browns

Born in Australia, lives and works in Brisbane.

Michael Phillips is a contemporary artist known for his extensive practice in printmaking, focusing on the materiality, vocabulary and surface of print. Over the past 38 years, he has exhibited his work in 12 solo and 36 group exhibitions, showcasing a diverse mix of paintings, prints, small sculptures, and artists' books. Recently, he completed his Masters of Visual Arts Research at the Queensland College of Art in 2022, where he explored the role of the autographic and materiality in prints. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Visual Arts at the Queensland College of Art and Design, researching "Printable Events: The haptic qualities and cultural readings of color within the surface of print".

These works are part of an ongoing study into the role and relationship colour plays in perception, in particular, the haptic qualities and cultural readings of colour within the surface of print. The prints are bound to the Russian avant-garde concept of Faktura, that is, how materials are used and evidence of it being made, ‘to build a print’, as a direct way to investigate the material aspects and resultant surface qualities of the print. The prints document a stage in the exploration of reconfiguring and rethinking our perception of colour in an attempt to identify the ‘haptic' of the ‘coloured surface’. The use of the grid is tied directly to the warp and weft of weaving and the emergent patterns and layering that arise from this making. Instrumental to this link is textile design and in particular the work of the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop. The matrix of these prints is analogous to the loom.

Phillips has also contributed to the design of several publications, including Chantal Fraser: The Ascended (Griffith University Art Museum); women of Brisbane: Judy Watson (Museum of Brisbane, 2021); Bogimbah Creek Mission: Fiona Foley (Pirri Productions, 2021); and Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings (Griffith University Art Museum and Power Publications, 2020).

In 2018, Phillips was commissioned to produce public artwork for the northern departures concourse of the Brisbane Airport's International Terminal. This substantial public art project involved creating a series of woodblock prints, which were then enlarged and digitally printed onto vinyl panels in collaboration with Urban Art Projects (UAP).

Michael Phillips is represented at Sydney Contemporary by PARKER Contemporary.