Benjamin Phillips

Benjamin Phillips is a mid-career American-Canadian sculptor based in Ottawa, Ontario. His art practice primarily focuses on portraying the human body with a style that intersects Classical form with contemporary themes relating to vulnerability, embodiment and change.

Phillips has worked to develop his own humanizing aesthetic that demonstrates a keen observer's intuition on the human condition. His figurative compositions foretell uncertain futures, frozen in moments of honest fragility that endow his compositions with a natural and arresting effect. His works arouse compassion, curiosity and reflection through their stripped-down and seemingly simple format. With any time spent with them, however, Phillips' sculptures quietly reveal layers of complexity and personal insights, like people. Trained originally in classical bronze statuary, Phillips works to subvert conventional expectations with figurative art into powerful statements of vulnerability and struggle.

Raised in rural Nova Scotia, Phillips graduated from Acadia University (BA), the University of Victoria (BFA) and Arizona State University (MFA), he is a two-time winner of the international Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation artist grant and three-time winner of...

2012 MFA Sculpture Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
2008 Capilano University Art Institute, Printmaking, North Vancouver, BC
2007 Capilano University Art Institute, Sculpture, North Vancouver, BC
1998 B.F.A., Honors, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
1995 B.A. Comparative Religion, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2020 "Standing, Shifting, Dreaming, Stooping", Shenkman Arts Centre's OSA Art Gallery, Orleans Campus, Ottawa, ON
2013 “Benjamin Phillips: the Ancestor Series”, Udinotti Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ 2012 “Without a Guide”, Phoenix Ice House, Phoenix, AZ
2012 “Without a Guide: MFA Thesis Exhibition”, Harry Wood Gallery, Tempe, AZ 2011 “Twilight”, The Night Gallery, Tempe, AZ
2011 “Reflection Pool”, Eye Lounge Artist Run Center, Phoenix, AZ
2011 “...Boys Are Weird” Eye Lounge Artist Run Center’s Project Room, Phoenix, AZ 2007 “Chthonian Dialogue”, Access Artist Run Centre’s Project Room, Vancouver, BC 2007 “Discomfort Zones”, Capilano College Studio Arts Gallery, North Vancouver, BC 2005 “Dry Run”, Capilano College Studio Arts Gallery, North Vancouver, BC
2001 “(f)art”, The Lee Building, Vancouver, BC
1999 “Current Works”, Rogue Art Gallery, Victoria, BC
1998 "Duh Duh", Vertical Gallery, of Open Space Artist Run Centre, Victoria, BC
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2020 "2020 Show", The Billboard Creative, curated by Chris Vroom, Los Angeles, CA
2020 "25th Arts North International 2020", Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, MN
2017 “From the Museum’s Permanent Collection”, Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art, Paradise Valle...