10 Questions with Leon Phillips

Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE17 | Featured Artist

Leon Phillips, born in 1964 in Spalding, Canada, is a contemporary painter currently based in Vancouver, Canada. Phillips employs the materiality of color to evoke a visceral response in viewers, infusing color with structural significance rather than mere decoration. Phillips' work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at venues such as the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse, Canada, and the Amelia Douglas Gallery in New Westminster, Canada. His work is included in collections that include the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago, IL, USA, and the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia. He has participated in artistic programs and residencies such as the International Painting Symposium "Mark Rothko 2021" at the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada. Through his innovative approach to color and form, Phillips pushes the boundaries of contemporary painting. 

www.leonphillips.ca | @leonphillipsart

ARTIST STATEMENT

Phillips’ gestural work explores perception and embodiment through the materiality of color, aiming to immerse viewers in a corporeal experience. He sees himself as a facilitator, collaborating with tools and materials to create paintings that transcend mere objects or images and transform them into conduits for shared sensory experiences. Unlike conventional easel painting, he prefers a horizontal orientation, which enhances physical engagement and allows for greater viscosity. Repetition and layering of swirling gestures evoke the presence of his body and invite a vicarious bodily response in the viewer. Phillips also addresses gendered biases in contemporary painting, where gestural techniques have often been associated with masculinity while color is viewed as a feminine attribute. He explores new ideas about gesture and color, promoting non-binary definitions and expanding the conversation around these concepts. Through his art, Phillips aims to challenge traditional notions and create imagery that resonates with diverse experiences and identities.

The Wiggle | Project Statement

“The Wiggle series emerged from an earlier exploration of small oil paintings when I experimented with a broader color palette, a structured grid approach, and worked horizontally with oil paint. Inspired by the environment of Vancouver, particularly its rainy, neon-lit nights, this series captures a glow reminiscent of digital light emanating from behind surfaces. Color contrasts and gestural brushwork create layered, transparent gestures that embody a duo-chromatic quality so that colors interact in a non-binary manner.

In developing this series, I dedicated significant time to expanding my color palette, incorporating oranges, pinks, and teals. My quest for lightfast, modern pigments (mimicking non-lightfast fluorescents and neon) led me to hues that exhibit a luminous quality, inspired by both classic Technicolor films and contemporary pigment technology. Re-reading Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color reinforced my understanding of the relativity of color and guided my choice of cadmium oranges and scarlets to evoke a neon urban light. I utilized an alla prima technique, working wet into wet on a flat surface to embrace gestural spontaneity while engaging gravity in new ways.

This series represents a pivotal evolution in my artistic practice, emphasizing participation alongside creation. The title Wiggle suggests movement and corporeality and reflects my engagement with a palette that enhances the dynamic interplay between value and hue. By treating color and gesture as relational rather than proportional, I aim to create a sense of subjectivity and presence where my gestures merge drawing and color, transcending traditional categories.”

— Leon Phillips

AL-TIBA9 ART MAGAZINE ISSUE17

INTERVIEW

What first sparked your interest in art, and how did you evolve into the artist you are today?

As a child, I loved drawing and creating, encouraged by supportive parents. An inspiring art professor, Otto Rogers, profoundly shaped my development. Ignoring transitory art trends, immersing myself in art history, and constant reading about contemporary art have all been pivotal in shaping me into the artist I am today.

Could you share how your experiences in art residencies, like the one at the Banff Centre, have shaped your practice? What other experiences contributed to your growth?

Art residencies have provided invaluable critical context and space to focus, work larger, and engage with other artists, writers, and musicians—much like a compressed MFA. Travel has also been transformative—seeing Gerhard Richter's Berlin retrospective in 2012 inspired me to begin working with oil paints, shaping my practice significantly.

Living and working in Vancouver, how has the city's environment inspired elements of your Wiggle series?

Vancouver's temperate rainforest environment, with its frequent rain, dark winters, and glowing neon and LED lights, creates a unique, noir atmosphere. The city's natural diversity, dense population, and ever-changing, close proximity to nature influenced my Wiggle series. The work reflects this through lush colors, contrasting light, and dynamic, unresolved movement.

In your artist statement, you mention using a horizontal orientation and engaging with gravity. How does this influence your approach to painting?

My horizontal painting approach prevents drips, avoiding associations with abstract expressionism's emotive marks. Working flat allows paint to remain on the surface, creating greater viscosity. This orientation emphasizes physical engagement so that I can use the fluid paint and my moving body to shape a dynamic surface and an active chromatic experience.

You work with modern pigments and explore a broader color palette. How do you choose your colors, and how do they enhance your exploration of light and texture?

My color choices are often influenced by cinema, such as Technicolor's vibrant palette and neon or noir aesthetics.Modern pigments' saturation allows me to create intense, contrasting gestures evocative of urban or digital lighting. I favor dynamic, non-binary colors that shift between hues, enhancing my exploration of light and texture.

You describe your technique as gestural, almost corporeal. What role does physicality play in your work?

Physicality is central to my work, as both creating and viewing a painting engage the body alongside the mind and eyes. Through chromatic and gestural intensity, I aim to evoke a visceral, sympathetic response in the viewer, where they have an intense bodily response mirroring the act of creation.

You mention that your work addresses "gendered biases in contemporary painting." What motivates you to explore and challenge these traditional views, and how do you actively achieve this?

One of the ways that I challenge gender biases in painting is to rethink feminine connotations of color. I employ color structurally, not decoratively, by building my paintings with color while embracing saturated, modern hues linked to femininity. This creates a tension between traditional and modern views, fostering a non-binary dialogue in my work.

How do you hope viewers will engage with the subliminal messages and layered gestures in your work?

I hope viewers experience a visceral, sympathetic response to my paintings so that both body and mind are engaged. I aim for the work to resonate as a contemporary reflection of our time that transcends algorithms and the digital while offering a uniquely human and tactile experience.

Are there new techniques or themes you're excited to experiment with in future series?

I'm motivated to explore greater immersion of myself into the process by deploying color and gesture at a larger, horizontal scale using moving platforms to do so. I'm also eager to use the oranges, pinks, and fleshy hues I've formulated to emphasize the human body and presence in my work.

Lastly, how do you envision the evolution of your work in the coming years?

In the coming years, I plan to focus on oil on canvas, moving beyond works on paper. Exploring different scales, especially larger horizontal formats, excites me. Shifting size and scale brings fresh challenges, and it keeps the process dynamic and evolving. Painting is always about relationships, not mathematical proportions.