Aston Philip is a painter interested in the changing dimensions of pictorial and painterly space throughout human history. His primary concern for our time is the human relationship with the natural world. How can this partnership be explored spatially? visually? as the connection is simultaneously nurtured, studied, or contested. Research on the positive physiological effects of forest bathing as well as plant memory and the social lives of plants are also dominant influences to my practice. The evolution of technique in his paintings and the examination of interconnectivity and symbiosis has led to his current practice of weaving and interlacing cured paint skin strips and collaged cured paint skin gestures. Philip sometimes refer to these paint-based works as paint tapestries. Structurally hundreds of multicoloured warp and weft strips explore the flat surface of the image plane. Together these strips figuratively and abstractly imply visual depth that is continuously disrupted by the texture of the weave. Phillips finds these elements, both physical and visual can resonate much like the weft of nature and the living world can against the warp of the built human environment.
About Aston Phillip
Aston Philip is an artist who incorporates various methods of production into his painting practice to create a variety of paint-based works. Philip’s interconnected techniques and woven surfaces reflect his interest in symbiosis and biodiversity as well as express a desire to invest labor in an Earth Justice-based economy. Philip’s works have been exhibited at many notable institutions and galleries in his country of birth, Australia, including The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace, Galerie Pompom, Campbelltown Art Centre, and Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. He recently moved to the United States and has been included in exhibitions with Prince Street Gallery in New York City, The Williamsburg Art and Historical Center and Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, Gallery Aferro in Newark, and has an upcoming solo exhibition planned for the Australian Consulate General Office in New York City. Philip’s paintings and his interest in the environment and sustainability led to an artist residency at the Hafnarborg Centre for Contemporary Art in Iceland and at Bundanon in the Shoalhaven Valley in Australia. In 2018 he undertook a 12 month artist in residence program at Trestle Art Space, through which, he developed his current paint tapestry technique and is now researching decorative detail in historical crafts as a form of cataloging biodiversity.
