Joel Daniel Phillips is an American artist whose work focuses on the tenets of classical draftsmanship employed in monumental formats. Inspired by the depth and breadth of human experience, he strives to tell the personal and societal histories etched in the world around him. The focus of his work centers on questions of truth, historical amnesia, and the veracity of the stories we tell ourselves about our collective pasts. The drawings are re-contextualizations of archival historical material, and walk the line between describing a shared, forgotten history and prophesying a terrifying, Orwellian future.
Phillips’ work has been exhibited at institutions and galleries across the United States as well as abroad, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tacoma Art Museum, The Art Museum of South Texas, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Gilcrease Museum of Art, and the Ackland Art Museum, among others. In 2016 he was the 3rd prize recipient in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and the artist was a Fellow at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His drawings can be found in the public collections of the Ackland Art Museum, the Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art, the West Collection, the Gilcrease Museum, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and the Denver Art Museum.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
“Killing the Negative”, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York NY, Oct 2020
“It Felt Like The Future Was Now”, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa OK, Feb 2019
“Hazards May Be Present (pt. 2)”, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, Dec 2018
“The Future Was Now”, Galleri Ramfjord, Oslo Norway, May 2018
“Welcome to the Orange West”, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville TN, Oct 2017
"Hazards May Be Present", Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, April 2017
“Belongings”, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2016
"Repose" Galleri Ramfjord, Oslo Norway, Oct 2015
"I Am Another Yourself", Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, Sept 2014
"No Regrets In Life", Satellite 66, San Francisco CA, May 2012
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
“4x8 Bridges” 8 Bridges / Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, Jan 2021
2020
“The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today”, Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield MA, Oct 2020 - April 2021
“Greetings from Miami” Hashimoto Contemporary, New York NY, Dec 2020
“Covid Diaries”, Lovaas Projects, Berlin Germany, May 2020
“The Moleskine Project IX”, Spoke Art, Honolulu, Hawai'i, Feb 2020
“Lately”, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, January 2020
2019
“The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today”, National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C., Oct 2019 - June 2020
Context Art Fair, Hashimoto Contemporary, Miami MI, Dec 2019
Scope Art Fair, Galleri Ramfjord, Miami MI, Dec 2019
“Dorothea Lange’s America”, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa OK, August 2019
“Recall/Respond: Tulsa Artist Fellowship and Gilcrease Museum Collaboration”, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa OK,
June 2019
“Potluck” Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, June 2019
"The Eight Annual Supersonic Invitational", Spoke Art Gallery, New York NY, April 2019
“On Paper”, Booth Gallery, New York NY, Feb 2019
2018
“re:home, A For Freedoms Exhibition”, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco CA, Dec 2018
Context Art Fair, Hashimoto Contemporary, Miami MI, Dec 2018
“The New Real III” Tinney Contemporary, Nashville TN, Oct 2018
“The Moleskin Project VII” Spoke Art Gallery, New York NY, Aug 2018
"National Realism Survey", MA Doran, Tulsa OK, May 2018
Art Market San Francisco, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2018
Art on Paper Fair, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York NY, March 2018
"The Seventh Annual Supersonic Invitational", Spoke Art Gallery, New York NY, Jan 2018
“NEW/NOW: Works By The Tulsa Artist Fellowship”, The Philbrook Museum, Tulsa OK, Jan 2018
2017
Context Art Fair, Hashimoto Contemporary, Miami MI, Dec 2017
"Juxtapozed" Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne ID, Apr-Jul 2017
"Flourish", Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa AZ, May-Aug 2017
"National Realism Survey", MA Doran, Tulsa OK, May 2017
“Outwin Boochever Portrait Exhibition”, Tacoma Art Museum/Art Museum of South Texas/Kemper Museum, Various, Jan-Dec 2017
“Impulse: Then & Now”, Art Association of Harrisburg, PA. 2017.
Art Market San Francisco, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2017
"The Sixth Annual Supersonic Invitational", Spoke Art NY, New York NY, Jan 2017
2016
Miami Project, Hashimoto Contemporary, Miami MI, Dec 2016
“The New Vanguard”, Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster CA, August 2016
Art Market San Francisco, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2016
“Outwin Boochever Portrait Exhibition”, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, March 2016
“MFA Never”, Root Division Gallery, San Francisco CA, Feb 2016
“Art Pow! Wow!”, Honolulu School Museum of Art, Honolulu HI, Jan 2016
“The Fifth Annual Supersonic Invitational”, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, Jan 2016
2015
Miami Project, Hashimoto Contemporary, Miami MI, Dec 2015
"Front Yard / Backstreet", Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto CA, Oct 2015
“Invisible College”, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Forte Wayne IN, July 2015
“Manifest:Justice”, Task Force, Los Angeles CA, May 2015
Art Market San Francisco, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2015
Art on Paper Fair, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York NY, March 2015
“Supersonic Electronic Invitational IV”, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, Jan 2015
2014
Scope Art Fair Miami, Hashimoto Contemporary, Miami FL, Dec 2014
Art Market San Francisco, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2014
“EK Invitational, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco CA, May 2014
2013
“The Moleskin Project III” Spoke Art Gallery, San Francisco CA, Dec 2013
“Bad Dads, A Tribute to Wes Anderson” Spoke Art Gallery, San Francisco CA, Nov 2013
“AMC’s The Walking Dead Gallery Show” Hero Complex Gallery, Los Angeles CA, Oct 2013
“Califas” Group Invitational, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco CA, Oct 2013
Art Market San Francisco, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco CA, May 2013
“Scorcese: an art show tribute” Group Invitational, Spoke Art Gallery/Bold Hype Gallery, New York NY, April 2013
“ReCreate ATX” Group Invitational, Hope Outdoor Gallery, Austin TX, March 2013
“Gallery Crawl NightLife” Pop-up Art Museum, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco CA, Jan 2013
2012
“Journeys: Westmont Artist’s Alumni Invitational”, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara CA, Oct 2012
“2 Blocks of Art” Group Invitational, Urban Solutions, San Francisco CA, Sept 2012
“Street Level” Group Invitational, Ogilvy & Mather, San Francisco CA, June 2012
PUBLICATIONS
Number Ninety Eight, “Regional Update: Tulsa”, Summer 2019
The Journal Gazette, “Artist Creates Portraits Live and Life-sized”, March 2019
Tulsa World, “Arts Scene: Philbrook Downtown draws in two artists for First Friday”, Jan 2019
Nashville Arts Magazine, “Joel Daniel Phillips: Welcome to the Orange West”, Oct 2017
Artsy, “Joel Daniel Phillips’ Disarming Portraits Look at the Frayed Edge of San Francisco’s Social Fabric” May 2016
BBC News, “New Faces in the US National Portrait Gallery” March 2016
Washington Post, “The National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Outwin 2016 Competition” March 2016
Smithsonian Magazine, “Every Three Years, Artists Compete to Be On View at the National Portrait Gallery. Here Are the Winners” March 2016
Fine Art Connoisseur, “Artists Making Their Mark: Three to Watch. Discover the talents of Leah Lopez, Joel Daniel Phillips, and Cameron Smith” March-April 2015
The Huffington Post, “Hyperrealistic Drawings Ask Viewers To Take A Closer Look At Homeless Communities”, Spring 2015
Juxtapoz, "Powerful Portraits: Joel Daniel Phillips", Spring 2015
Hi-Fructose, "Joel Daniel Phillips' Provoking Life-size Portraits". Spring 2015
Graffiti Art Magazine, “From realism to hyperrealism” #26, Summer 2015
New American Paintings, Pacific Coast Issue #115, Fall 2014
Let Petit Voyuer, Issue 02, Summer 2014
San Francisco Bay Guardian, “Joel Daniel Phillips illustrates the overlooked in ‘I Am Another Yourself’, Fall 2014,
Juxtapoz, ‘Joel Daniel Phillips, No Regrets In Life’, Fall 2012,
San Francisco Bay Guardian, ‘Sketching Sixth Street: In new show, Joel Phillips renders the unseen’, Summer 2012
The Huffington Post, ‘No Regrets In Life’: Joel Daniel Phillips Exhibit Captures Mid-Market’s Homeless Residents’, Summer 2012
The Bold Italic, ‘No Regrets at Sixth and Market”, Summer 2012,
The Phoenix, “You Must Come From An Honorable Family” (2009), Spring 2011,
GRANTS and RESIDENCIES
Tulsa Artist Fellowship (Arts Integration Grantee) Tulsa OK, 2020-2021
Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Tulsa OK, 2017-2019
The Jaunt, Morocco, Spring 2019
Ramfjord’s Kunstkollectiv, Oslo Norway, Spring 2019
Ramfjord’s Kunstkollectiv, Oslo Norway, Spring 2018
Palo Alto Art Center Residency Grant, Palo Alto CA, Summer 2015
Helene Wurlizter Foundation Residency Grant, Taos NM, Summer 2014
AWARDS and HONORS
3rd Prize, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, March 2016
Tom Anderson Art Award, Westmont College, 2010/2011
Ludington-Parshall Art Award, Santa Barbara Art Association, 2009/2010
Wes Nishamura Memorial Art Scholarship, Westmont College, 2008/2009
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
Public
Denver Art Museum
Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Gilcrease Museum
West Collection
Private
Beth Rudin Dewoody
Marc and Jane Nathanson
Victoria Kennedy
Martin Scorcese
EDUCATION
Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, May 2011, Bachelor of Arts - Major in Fine Art, Graphics Emphasis
New York Center for Art and Media Studies, New York, NY, September 2009 - December 2009
We live in a world that consumes images at an exponentially increasing rate. Smartphones, social media and the internet have made the creation and the consumption of images not just commonplace, but unavoidable, and with this ever growing consumption comes a numbness to the complex reality of the images we gorge ourselves upon.
Le Corbusier said that “the only way to truly understand something is to draw it”. This is the center of my work—an attempt to sincerely grasp what I see through the tip of a pencil and a piece of charcoal. My creative process is inherently about labor, and against the modern backdrop of instant, image-driven gratification, I have found the physical process involved in the painstaking, craft-driven rendering of a subject or a moment to be ever more important. The focus of this work centers on questions of truth, historical amnesia, and the veracity of the stories we tell ourselves about our collective pasts. The drawings are re-contextualizations of archival historical material, and walk the line between describing a shared, forgotten history and prophesying a terrifying, Orwellian future. I am fascinated with the way our societal amnesia is such that we have entirely lost touch with events that should have been indelibly burned into our collective, cultural psyche. While the works come directly from actual recorded moments, they create a dizzying sense of dreamlike dislocation — are the images real? A dream? It is this tension between imagination and reality; actual past and possible future that I wish to explore.