Cut Out Portraits by Artist Gina Phillips
Gina Phillips is a mixed-media, narrative artist who grew up in Kentucky and has lived in New Orleans since 1995. Her work is influenced by the imagery, stories and characters of both regions. She started her career as a painter, but over the years, has increasingly incorporated fabric and thread into her work. She begins a piece with a simple underpainting in acrylic paint on canvas or muslin…then finishes the piece by appliquéing fabric and thread on top.
Phillips uses a communal gathering process to source her fabrics, as neighbors, friends, family often donate to her artistic process. Her sewn work hover between two and three dimensionality and often the backs of her pieces are as interesting as the front sides. The most common narrative characteristic that runs through her work is tragicomedy. The people and/or animals that tell the story often embody a magical realism.
Gina Phillips has a BFA from University of Kentucky and an MFA from Tulane University’s Newcomb College. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country including at Pepperdine University, Tulane University and most recently at Ballroom Marfa. In addition, her work was recently featured at Pulse LA and will also be a part of the gallery’s presentation at Pulse Miami. Phillips’ work has been featured in Art in America, The Times- Picayune and her recent solo exhibition this past March was reviewed in ARTNews.
Phillips is scheduled for a major solo exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in 2013. She was chosen as one of twenty-seven international artists featured in the current Prospect.2 Biennial of Contempoary Art in New Orleans. Her work is in numerous collections including University of Kentucky, Lexington, NASA, New Orleans Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Tulane University and House of Blues (various locations across the US.)
Gina Phillips lives and works in New Orleans, LA and is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Special thanks to the gallery for providing the artist information. Phillips' fabric cut-out portraits are currently on exhibit at Art Basel Miami Beach at the gallery booth C-103 at Pulse until December 4, 2011.
