PHILIP BARLOW

(b. 1968, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa)

Philip 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."                                                                  - Phillip Barlow

"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."                    - Phillip Barlow

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 of Graphic Fine Art (Printing, Stained Glass and Photography). He has shown in numerous exhibitions locally, as well as in the USA and in Greece.

Barlow currently lives and paints in Riebeeck Kasteel in the Western Cape.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 

2019

between broadway and 42nd, solo exhibition, Everard Read CIRCA, Cape Town, South Africa

Winter Collection, group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2018

still motion II, solo show, Everard Read, London, UK

2017

still motion, solo exhibition, Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

Reality Check, group exhibition, Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

Solo studios, group exhibition, The Gallery, Riebeeck Kasteel, South Africa

Winter Collection, group exhibition, CIRCA Cape Town, South Africa

2016

Summer in the City, group show, Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

Solo studios, group exhibition, The Gallery, Riebeeck Kasteel, South Africa

2015

The Anatomy of Colour, solo exhibition at Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

2013

The Colour of Light, solo exhibition at Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2011

Persona, group exhibition at Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Group Exhibition, Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, USA
The Homestead Charity Art Auction at Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Boréal Publishers print a second ‘compact’ version of the Dany Laferrière novel, L`Enigme du Retour

2010

Light Train, solo exhibition at Obert Contemproary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009

Boréal Publishers use Passing for a book cover by Dany Laferrière, L`Enigme du Retour
Art That Inspires - 10-20 Anniversary, group exhibition at Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Group exhibition, Hespe Gallery, San Franciso, USA

2008

Vapor, solo exhibition at Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

Luminosity, solo exhibition at Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2006

De Light - solo exhibition at Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005

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

2003

This Thing of Light, first solo exhibition at the Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

EDUCATION

1974 - 1986

Rhodes Estate Prep School, Matopes, Zimbabwe  
St Andrews College, Grahamstown, South Africa

1987 - 1990

Diploma in Graphic Fine Art (Printing, Stained Glass and Photography) from Port Elizabeth Technikon (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)

COLLECTIONS

Bowman Gilfillan, Johannesburg 
Nandos, London