PHILIP BARLOW

(b.1968 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa)

Philip Barlow describes his work as a step towards abstraction. It is primarily the exploration of light and the relationship of colour, where he at first captures his images with a camera and then translates them into a painted format. He is interested in the concept of capturing “the moment”, a millisecond in time when everything lines up perfectly. His paintings seek to explore and demonstrate this, rather like a wonderfully composed climax of a symphony, a perfect marriage. His paintings also give us a glimpse in time where form, light and colour come together in all their complexity. 

Philip has a deep appreciation and love for the power and science of colour. Careful tonal shifts and subtlety characterize his work and the blurred image enabled by the camera lens creates new but familiar understandings of form and the relationship between people and place.

"Although I work within a long tradition of landscape painting, my depiction of the ‘seen’ landscape is simply a vehicle through which I navigate territory of another nature. A landscape less ordinary; where the line between the physical and the spiritual realm has seemingly been removed. However, these scenarios are not intended to be of a surreal nature. Hopefully they will seem curiously familiar and convincingly real.

"The figures in the landscape serve as carriers and reflectors of the light that falls upon them. Bathed in the luminosity, it is my hope that they would become more beautiful. To me, light is the ultimate subject because it embodies the pinnacle of all reality."

He is fascinated with the common notion that everything is random when there can be no question that there is design in everything. His is a philosophy of harmony, where even in the grit and grime of a city there is immense beauty to be discovered. A beauty that lies between the imperceptible and the unknown.

Born 1968 in Pietermaritzburg, Barlow graduated in 1990 from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth with a Diploma in Graphic Fine Art (Printing, Stained Glass and Photography). He has shown in numerous exhibitions locally, as well as in North America and in Greece.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021   slowing a split second, Everard Read, London, UK 

2020   intersections, Galerie LeRoyer, Montréal, Québec, Canada

2019   between broadway & 42nd, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa 

2018   still motion II, Everard Read, London, UK

2017   still motion, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2015   The Anatomy of Colour, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2013   The colour of light, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa 

2010   Light Train, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa 

2008   Vapor, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa
          Luminosity, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa 

2006   De Light, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa 

2005   Solo exhibition at the Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa 

2004   Glow, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2003   This Thing of Light, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023   If you look hard enough, you can see our future, African American Museum, Dallas, USA

2022   Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

          Group show, Galerie LeRoyer, Toronto, Canada

          Art Miami, with Galerie LeRoyer, Miami, USA

2021   Oasis, 25th anniversary show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020   Odyssey, online exhibition, Everard Read, South Africa & UK

2019   Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017   Reality Check, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

          Solo studios, The Gallery, Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa

          Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2016   Summer in the City, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

          Solo studios, Gallery, Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa

2014   Summer Salon, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece

2013   Allusions of Abstraction, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2011   Persona, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

          Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, USA
          The Homestead Charity Art Auction, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2009   Art That Inspires, 10-20 Anniversary, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
          Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, USA

2004   Identity,  Fortis Circustheater, Scheveningen, Netherlands

COLLECTIONS

Bowman Gilfillan, Johannesburg
Nandos, London