Michael Phillipson makes across a range of media (including the visual, literary and musical arts). He has been actively involved in and a regular exhibitor with The London Group since his election in 2002. His studio practice spans painting, printing, photography, objects, and sound. He writes short fiction and poetry while, as a saxophone player, his musical interests focus on improvised music and jazz.
Since ‘Painting, Language and Modernity’ (Routledge, 1985) and ‘In Modernity’s Wake : The Ameurunculus Letters’ (Routledge 1989), his publications include numerous reviews for ‘Artscribe International’, a wide range of articles in edited collections, and a variety of catalogue essays. Recent essays include ‘In Harm’s Way: Performing as Damage Limitation’ (parallax 55, 2010), and ‘Drawing Draws Draward’ (in ‘Drawing and Ambiguity’, eds. Sawdon and Marshall, I.B.Tauris, forthcoming 2014). Earlier, as a trumpet player, he was a member of the New Jazz Orchestra (see their Decca recording, ‘Western Reunion’, 1965, reissued on CD by Vocalion, 2006).
He contributed to the design, development and teaching of the M.A. in Fine Art at University of London Goldsmiths College, was a Researcher in Fine Art at Middlesex University where he taught on a range of under- and post-graduate courses, and has taught on the M.A. at Central St. Martin’s. He has acted as an external examiner across art courses in England and Wales.
He takes sole responsibility for the faltering attempt to establish a small and struggling arboretum in West Wales. Dogged by the vagaries of the local climatic response to global warming he continues to mourn the recurrent loss of a growing number of implants and the all-strangling virulence of the Celtic bramble. The handful of surviving flora are duly celebrated.
In addition to the ‘Art’s Plight’ website, a selection of his own makings are now available on-line at: www.michaelphillipson-arts.co.uk.