PHILIP BARLOW
(b. 1968, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa)

Philip Barlow 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.

"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."

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

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

urbes, contemporary landscape, European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain

2023

if you look hard enough, you can see our future, African American Museum, Dallas

urban glory, Bugno Gallery, Venice, Italy

2022

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Everard Read, Cape Town

Miami Art Fair, Galerie Le Royer

2021
slowing a split second, Everard Read, London, South Africa

2020
intersections, Galerie LeRoyer, Montréal, Québec, Canada

2019
between broadway & 42nd, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2018
still motion II, Everard Read, London, UK
28th Février, Singapore

2017
still motion, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
the anatomy of colour, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
the colour of light, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2010
light train, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008
vapor, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa
luminosity, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2006
de light, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005
solo exhibition at the Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

2004
glow, Obert Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2003
this thing of light, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

Southern Light - group exhibition - Everard Read, London

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town

2022

Summer, Everard Read, Cape Town

2019
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Solo Studios, The Gallery, Riebeek Kasteel
Summer, Everard Read London, UK

2017
Reality Check, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Solo studios, The Gallery, Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
Summer in the City, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Solo studios, The Gallery, Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa

2014
Summer Salon, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Winter Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
Allusions of Abstraction, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
The Colour of Light, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Persona, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, USA
The Homestead Charity Art Auction, 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, Obert Contemproary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009
Art That Inspires - 10-20 Anniversary, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, USA
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

2004
Identity, Fortis Circustheater, Scheveningen, the Netherlands

COLLECTIONS

Bowman Gilfillan, Johannesburg
Nandos, London

EDUCATION

1987 - 1990
Diploma in Graphic Fine Art (Printing, Stained Glass and Photography) from Port Elizabeth Technikon (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)