Susannah Phillips: Recent Work

Susannah Phillips: Recent Work
January 11 – February 24, 2018
Reception: Thursday, January 11th from 6:00-8:00pm

Bookstein Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Susannah Phillips. This is the artist’s fifth show with Lori Bookstein and her first solo-show with the gallery.

This latest body of work continues Phillips exploration of variations on single themes. The motif for the paintings in this exhibition is drawn from the view of the Hudson River as seen from the artist’s studio in Washington Heights. Abstracted views of rooftops frame the lower margin of the composition, while bands of broken color define the Hudson River, New Jersey and sky above it. Occasionally, the George Washington Bridge makes an appearance. Painted in an infinite lexicon of blacks, greys and taupes, there is a rich coloration that sits just beneath the surface of her paintings. Cool pinks, buttery yellows and prismatic blues reveal themselves beneath her seemingly monochromatic palette, adding a rich complexity to what may otherwise be described as austere.

The works on paper in this exhibition will also mark the debut of another new interior motif. It is constructed almost exclusively of squares and rectangles stacked one on top of the other. While this composition could easily be read as pure abstraction, its inspiration comes from a wood-paneled wall of bookshelves and an interior window in the artist’s family camp on Cape Cod. Sometimes, a stick props open the window at the center of the composition, bisecting the staid grid of rectangles behind it.

Susannah Phillips was born in 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts but was raised in London. She attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London, studying under William Coldstream and Euan Uglow. Her paintings have been in exhibitions in London, New York, Montreal and Provincetown, MA, and are included in numerous private collections. In 2014 and 2017, she was awarded the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency. The artist lives and works in New York.

Susannah Phillips: Recent Work will be on view from January 11 – February 24, 2018. A reception will be held on Thursday, January 11th from 6:00-8:00pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or by email at [email protected].