Ruth Philo
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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).
Based in a live/work space in Sudbury, Suffolk, I am currently researching colour and neuroaesthetics, looking into the sensory, physiological and psychological affects of colour in painting and its potential for health and wellbeing. As part of this project I have been exploring the history of colour back to Aristotle and ideas of colour and wellness through the humour system developed by Galen. A pilgrimage to blue, is a site based project that is part this, using visits to sites in Greece and Uzbekistan on the Silk Road.
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'. In 2023 I was selected for the Mark Rothko International Painting Symposium and Residency at the Rothko Museum, 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, London, a 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 and a British Council exhibition at the Palace of Culture, Iasi, Romania.
MA in Fine Art (2011) Norwich University of the Arts, BA History of Art, University of Warwick (1978).
Selected Recent Exhibitions
2024 Summer Contemporary, Britten Pears Arts, Snape, Suffolk
2024 Slow Painting, Studio KIND, Barnstaple & Plough Arts, Torrington, Devon
2024 Assembly, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex
2024 Beneath the Clouds, National Trust Granary, Flatford
2024 Contemporary Modernist Painters, John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire
2024 Oderwane / Detached, Galeria S35 with Fundacja Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
2024 This Year's Model: Part 1, Studio 1.1, London
2023 Love is the Meaning Exhibition Julian of Norwich 650, St Julians Church, Norwich
2023 International Mark Rothko Painting Symposium & Residency, Rothko Museum, Daugavpils, Latvia
2023 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2023 With(in) and With(out) Borders & Boundaries, Milkfactory, Hertogenbosch, Holland
2023 X Contemporary British Painting, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle
2022 Territory Expo, Sluice + PADA, Lisbon Art Fair, Lisbon, Portugal
2022 Paint Edgy, Contemporary British Painting, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber
2022 A Generous Space 2, Artists Support Pledge, New Art Gallery Walsall
2022 Vitalistic Fantasies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2022 The Art of Grieving, St Albans Museum, St Albans
2022 Paradoxes Contemporary British Painting, Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight
2021 Nowhere, Cley 21, Cley next the sea
2021 Art Top Ten Lockdown Interviews Exhibition, Cello Factory, London
2020 Vitalistic Fantasies, Contemporary British Painting, BEEP Painting Biennial 2020 2020 Beyond Other Horizons: Contemporary Paintings Made in Britain & Romania, British Council exhibition, Palace of Culture, Iași, Romania
2020 Mycorrhiza and Extancy, Survival Strategies, Sluice, AMP Gallery, Peckham, London
2019 A Hand Stuffed Mattress, group show curated by Karl Bielek at Terrace Gallery, William the Fourth, Leyton
2019 Between Us: Biennial Conversations & Exchanges, China & Britain, University of Suffolk, Ipswich & Ex Marks the Spot, Great Yarmouth
2019 Path, North House Gallery, Manningtree, Essex
2019 The Colour in Anything, Solo Show, M2 Gallery, Peckham, London
2019 Alive in the Universe, Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Venice Biennale
2019 Contemporary British Painting, Norwich Cathedral, Norwich
2019 Made in Britain: 82 Painters of the 21st Century, National Museum, Gdansk, Poland
2019 Painting as Terrain, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
2018 Local Anywhere, Sluice, Hackney, London
2018 NEW Painting, Contemporary British Painting, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
2018 Paintlounge Berlin, Sluice, The Kühlhaus, Berlin
2018 Estuary, North House Gallery, Manningtree, Essex
2018 First Biennale Sino-British Contemporary Art Exhibition, Yantai Art Museum, China
2018 The River Runs Through Us painting, film screenings, text & sound installation, the Boat House Gallery, Flatford, Suffolk
2018 This Year’s Model: Does the Body Rule the Mind? Studio 1.1, Redchurch Street London
2017-18 Contemporary Masters from Britain: 80 Painters of 21st Century, touring exhibition, Yantai Art Museum, Yantai; Artall Gallery, Nanjing; Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing & Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, Tianjin, China
2017 Ruth Philo & Yves Beaumont: Paintskips, Studio 1.1, Redchurch Street, London
2017 Solo show Paint Ground Westminster Reference Library, London
2016 Contemporary British Painting, 30x30x34, St Marylebone Parish Church. London
2016 Ways of Seeing The Boat House Gallery (National Trust), Flatford
2015 Jerwood Drawing Prize Jerwood Space, London
2015 Lines for Agnes The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
2015 to the lighthouse Residency & Show, grove projects, Bury St Edmunds
2015 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2015 Stations of the Cross Contemporary British Painting, Brentwood Cathedral
2014 A Creative Conversation Cley14, Cley-next-the-sea, Norfolk
Curating/Projects
2018- Fabric: Silk Road, cultural and ethnographic exchange making connections between the silk mills of Sudbury, Suffolk and the silk industry and traditions in China, with a research trip to China in 2018 funded through the British Council Artists International Development Fund.
2018- 19 Coordinator and programme developer for first Sudbury Silk Festival
2018- River Stour Festival, director of new year-long arts festival along River Stour, Essex, Suffolk & Cambridgeshire, supported by Dedham Vale AONB
2017-18 The River Runs Through Us, Film | Walks | Swims, with sound artist Stuart Bowditch, supported by ACE & Dedham Vale AONB
2016 Curator of Ways of Seeing, 12 Contemporary Painters, Flatford
2016- Member of Advisory Group, Contemporary British Painting
2015 Curator of Lines for Agnes: 9 Contemporary Painters, London
2015- Co-manager Social media, Contemporary British Painting @PaintBritain
2012-15 to the lighthouse, residency & collaborative project with sound artist Stuart
Bowditch, at grove projects, Bury St Edmunds
2005-2007 Project Developer, Visions of Sudbury, Sudbury, Suffolk funded by Awards for All
Education
2009-11 MA Fine Art Norwich University of the Arts
1990-1992 Diploma Art Textiles (Distinction) Anglia Ruskin University
1986-1987 PGCE Art Education (Distinction) Institute of Education, University of London
1975-1979 BA Hons History of Art 2:1 University of Warwick