Phillip McKay
For McKay, the landscape has always been a place of quiet reverence and connection. A place to mirror and project onto - a place to pour emotions and settle the mind. Though clearly infused with a Tasmanian sensibility, his landscape artworks remain non-representational in a topographical sense. Rather, they emerge from the canvas through the act of painting, remembering and feeling – pastiches of place, mood and memory.
McKay’s concern for many years now, has been the impacts of climate change. Bushfire, scorched earth and dried up river banks are reoccurring motifs through many of his works.
In 2005 he won the MONA Scholarship and produced 44 artworks over the year which were shown in his “Silent and Sorry” exhibition. This was McKay’s attempt to apologise, reconcile and acknowledge guilt for the whitefella’s murder, oppression, theft and slavery of this land’s first peoples.
McKay utilises tools and techniques that best mimic the seemingly random nature of the environment. Palette knives, rags, brushes and fingers are employed as random shapes emerge and are included or rejected as the painting evolves. Sometimes the process can take years before the painting is satisfactorily resolved. As McKay points out.
“Perhaps my paintings can never be finished, perhaps that is an impossibility. As time passes, so too do my sensibilities change. What appears to be finished today, becomes a work in progress tomorrow.”
McKay graduated from UTAS School of Art in 1999 and has also spent many years teaching art to people in prison, other people with mental health issues and young people.
He is currently the gallerist at the Hobart Art Gallery and artist in residence at the Hotel Grand Chancellor where he also runs a small art school.
Academic Qualifications/Training
1999 Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of Art, Hobart, 1999
2004 Respecting Cultures – Aboriginal Arts Advisory Committee
2003 Young Offenders: “Including the Arts” – Arts England and Justice Board - Tate Modern
2002 Artists in Schools, Bow Arts Trust, London UK
Solo Exhibitions
Current - Hobart Art Gallery
2018 “So It Did Warm Up”
Henry Jones Art Hotel
2005 ‘Silent and Sorry” MONA
1999 ‘Future Memories’
Sidespace Gallery SAC
1998 ‘Stripes and Squares’
Entrepot
1997 ‘Immaculate Conceptions’
The Wilderness Gallery
Group Exhibition
1999 ‘Flicker’
Entrepot
1997-98 Contemporary Art Services Tasmania (CAST)
1997 ‘Eight by Eight’
Dunce Gallery
1996 ‘Kissing the Blue Tongue’ Long Gallery
Awards, Grants and Commissions
2017 Pro Hart Outback Art Prize (Finalist)
2015 Doug Moran Portrait Prize (Finalist)
2005 MONA The Scholarship (Winner)
1991 Mossman Art Prize Sydney (Finalist)
1983 ANZ Bank Art Prize (Winner)
2003 Arts England Grant
2003 The Park Night Club Design UK
2002 Arts England Grant
2001 European Funding Scheme Urban Graffiti Project UK
1997 St. Ives Hotel, Club Surreal, Night Club Design
1991 Sydney City Council, ‘Teen Rage Mural’
Bibliography
Tim Martain: The Scholarship,
The Mercury, May 2004
Jeorg Andersch: Future Memories,
The Mercury, July 1999
Margaretta Pos: Streetwise Artist,
The Mercury, July 1999
Jeorg Andersch: Flicker,
The Mercury, Nov. 1999
Jeorg Andersch: Stripes and Squares,
The Mercury, 1998
Jeorg Andersch: Dexterity and Daring, The Mercury, 1997
Professional History
2011 Artist: Urban Smarts Projects - Art Projects working with people from Risdon Prison and Headway
2004 Community Artist: Glenorchy City Council/Scobies Mural –Working with at-risk youth
2001-03 Art Therapy: Youth Offending Team, UK
2003 Art Teacher: Cambridge University. UK (Teaching artists how to work with at risk youth)
2000-01 Art Teacher: Goldhay Arts Group, Cambridgeshire, UK (Disabilities)
1996-98 Art Teacher: Risdon Prison, Hobart, Tas
1992-93 Artist: Artwork Decorations, Sydney
1995 Artist: ‘Painting A Brighter Picture’, Community Art Project working with young people
1994 Artist: Half-Twist Design, Hobart
1991-92 Artist: Designed Events, Sydney
Curatorial
2020 Hobart Art Gallery
2001 The Millenium Show, Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, UK
Collections
MONA
Office of the Governor, Government House, Hobart
Private Collections:
London, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Germany, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart
The Meaning of Light - Phillip McKay
Drawing the Light