Artist Spotlight I Phyllida Barlow
Phyllida Barlow
Untitled: Broken Shelf, 2010
Timber, plaster, tape
140 x 90 x 70 cm
55 ⅛ x 35 ⅖ x 27 ½ in.
An installation of work by Phyllida Barlow is currently sited in our Design House. Ranging from 2006 to 2015, this selection of sculpture demonstrates the wide scope of Barlow’s use of materials and exploration of form.
Phyllida Barlow’s celebrated practice has been continuously punctuated by play and experimentation. Tactile and seemingly precarious sculpture is made from inexpensive, mass-produced materials like cardboard, fabric, paper, glue, plastic, wood and rubber. The result augments our sense of colour and space, playfully challenging her audience to explore their understanding of the nature and role of the sculptural object in contemporary culture. By using a mix of found objects and vibrant, household paint, Barlow pushes the material possibilities of sculpture with immense enthusiasm.
Phyllida Barlow, Untitled (chairs), 2006, Timber, paint, Approx. 115 x 53 x 44 cm
On the wall, three brilliantly painted chairs hang at incongruous angles; installed together as they were when they were shown in a group at Phyllida Barlow’s first exhibition at Roche Court in 2007. The park and galleries were adorned with large-scale work, and the emphasis on colour and surface quality situated these pieces somewhere between painting and sculpture.
Phyllida Barlow
Untitled (chair), 2006
Timber, paint
Approx. 115 x 53 x 44 cm
3 ft 9¼ x 1 ft 8⅞ x 1 ft 5¼ in.
Phyllida Barlow
untitled: lookoutpost(small), 2015
Cement, hessian scrim, PVA, paint, plaster, plywood, polystyrene, polyurethane foam, spray paint, timber
75 x 62 x 50 cm
29 ½ x 24 ⅜ x 19 ⅝ in.
In the centre of the room, Barlow’s Untitled: Broken Shelf (2010) rolls over itself, a mass of fluorescent reds, yellows and oranges. It is part of a large interrelated series of works collectively entitled Swamp, which made their debut in 2010 at her first studio; V22 on Ashwin Street.
Barlow's practice, as described by Frances Morris, was 'intimately bound up with the processes of living and looking', reflecting her enthusiasm for engaging with the physical 'stuff' of the world.
Phyllida Barlow
X's, 2010
Two polystyrene sculptures clad with a scrim cement sealant
86 x 86 x 70 cm / 2ft 9 ⅞ x 2ft 9 ⅞ x 2ft 3 ½ in.
89 x 87 x 72 cm / 2ft 11 x 2ft 10 ¼ x 2ft 4 ¼ in.
Phyllida Barlow
Pom Pom, 2006
Fabric, rope
49 x 50 x 50 cm
19 ¼ x 19 ¾ x 19 ¾ in.
Dame Phyllida Barlow DBE RA was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1944. After studying at Chelsea School of Art from 1960 to 1963, she graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1966. Between 1988 and 2009, Barlow taught at the Slade, and in 2011 was elected a Royal Academician. In 2014, she received the Tate Britain Commission for the Duveen Gallery, and in 2017 represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale with her installation folly. Phyllida Barlow was made a DBE in 2021.
Phyllida Barlow’s work has been exhibited extensively in museums and institutions worldwide. Recent solo shows include Phyllida Barlow: PRANK, Public Art Fund, City Hall Park, New York, USA (2023); Phyllida Barlow, Eleven Columns at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2023); BREACH, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany (2022); and cul-de-sac at The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019).
Phyllida Barlow, an exhibition at the New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park, 2007.
Matt Rugg I Words by Phyllida Barlow
NewArtCentre.
2022
Paperback, 210 x 126 mm
Matt's curiosity for making seemed to inhabit the ambiguous but profoundly compelling space between the wall and the floor - a kind of uncharted territory which can be claimed by both sculpture and painting.
- Phyllida Barlow on Matt Rugg at the opening of Matt Rugg: Early and Late Works, New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park, Salisbury [12 November 2022]