John Phillips

John Phillips is an abstract artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Phillips’s artworks present a unique fusion of minimalism and pop art and are imbued with neon colors, bold lines, and flattened, biomorphic shapes. He first creates his arrangements using design software, and then executes them in oil paints on rectangular canvases and circular panels. Sinuous lines that function as grids and optical foils interconnect with geometric forms in the pictorial space. His paintings balance color, form, and space and invite the viewer to revere the mathematical, albeit whimsical, nature of the compositions. 

He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of Colorado, Boulder in 1975 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979, where he would later teach as adjunct professor for twenty years. Phillips is a member of the American Abstract Artists and a visual arts fellow for the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Endowment for the Arts, all in New York City. He participated in numerous group exhibitions internationally, such as the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, France, and the Nanjing International Art Fair in China, among others. He exhibited twice with Galerie Kusseneers in Brussels, Belgium, and in various galleries throughout Chicago. His work is featured in public collections from institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the John D. and Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Illinois; and the Rockford Art Museum, Illinois.

Headshot photography courtesy of John Phillips

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