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| | ARTIST NAME: | Philippi, Colleen | | ACCESSION NUMBER: | 2022.019.003 | | TITLE: | PC THREE HUNDRED NINETY-NINE, THREE INTERIORS | | DATE: | 2017 | | CATEGORY: | Mixed Media | | MEDIUM: | paper, wood, gold leaf, metal, graphite, coloured pencil, acrylic, ink, plastic | | SUPPORT: | wood | | DIMENSIONS: | Actual: 27.2 × 37.1 × 7.8 cm (10 11/16 × 14 5/8 × 3 1/16 in.) | | COLLECTION: | Alberta Foundation for the ArtsNewzones Gallery Of Contemporary Art, |
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| | OTHER HOLDINGS: | Philippi, Colleen | | ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | The words “mystical”, “magical” and “surreal” have been used to describe Colleen Philippi’s intricate assemblages. Her works address, amongst other themes, the way our lives are formed of chaos and how we make order out of that chaos.
Before settling in Calgary, Colleen studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, earning first a BFA in 1982, followed in 1986 by a BA in Classics. She has lived in Berlin and Paris, and travelled through Europe and the former Soviet Union. From these travels, and her studies, she draws on a wealth of collected objects, as well as historical, mythological, literary and allegorical references.
Her mixed-media works are composed of small objects, found, acquired from thrift shops or built by Philippi herself, as well as letters, word fragments, signs, and oil or acrylic paint and scraps of material used to create trompe-l’oeil effects. With these she constructs a miniature universe, sometimes including fictional histories she has written, and tiny versions of her own paintings. The assemblages are often framed, and may include small doors with hidden compartments which the viewer is invited to open, touch and explore. With these visual building blocks, the visitor constructs his or her own meaning, and generates different stories.
Her work has been compared with Alice in Wonderland as it goes beyond the surface to explore the “secret stuff of life”, the subconscious. The exhibit Power Play (1991), playing with scale and illusion, presented fragments of toys in various dimensions, constituting an exploration of childhood and the way a child learns to perceive reality – now revisited as an adult. Parallel Parks (2000) presented four paintings on opposing walls, depicting different versions of nature: the 17th-century structured gardens of Versailles, for example, in dialogue with numbered, gridded views of Banff National Park. The work questioned our idea of the natural, and our need both for sanctuary and to control and document nature. Other exhibits of Philippi’s re-present untried or previously-rejected ideas. At the heart of her work is the theme of ‘play’ as an infinite game.
Colleen has a long history of exhibits and art fairs with Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art in Calgary. Her work has also been shown at the Gallery on Whyte and Latitude 53, Edmonton; the Whyte Museum, Banff; and in group exhibitions in Florida, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Tokyo. Her work is held in local, national and international private, corporate and museum collections, including at the Glenbow, Calgary.
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