Richard Phillips American, b. 1962

Born 1962, Marblehead, Massachusetts
Lives and works in New York

Richard Phillips has spent more than three decades examining how photographs shape the public identities of their subjects. After studying painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Yale, he began working from images found in fashion magazines and other printed sources. His subjects have since ranged from models and politicians to actors and musicians.

Phillips translates existing photographs through drawing and the deliberate methods of traditional painting. Cropping, enlargement, and meticulous execution preserve the immediate appeal of the original image while revealing how carefully it has been constructed. His work concerns not simply celebrity, but the process by which publishing, advertising, and entertainment turn a person into a public image.

Phillips participated in the 1997 Whitney Biennial and has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Zürich, Kunstverein Hamburg, Le Consortium, the Swiss Institute, White Cube, and Gagosian. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Tate.