Profile
Phil Booth
1985
Philip Booth makes wall mounted and free standing constructions, box works, art medals and works on paper, mainly in mixed media. Underpinning much of the work are critical questions about the many-layered and often dysfunctional relationship between ourselves and the natural world.
An extensive development process brings together material generated by reactions to encounters with the landscape and other sources that can be entirely invented, revealing and enlarging new dynamics and discoveries. Ultimately the meaning of the work lies in its presence, not illusion, expressing a sense of the physical world in a vibrant abstract language without replicating reality, creating a kind of personal geology that alludes to and celebrates the dynamics of nature rather than merely depicting it. Meticulously and skilfully made, the work is reflective and contemplative yet lively and intricate embracing nature’s complexity but revealing essential new rhythms. The use of assemblage brings reference, history and more tangential/conceptual associations.
The majority of his practice is studio based for exhibition, though he also undertakes commissions, landscape design and public artwork projects.
Studied Foundation at Hornsey College of Art. 1967-8
Dip.A.D. Manchester College of Art and Design 1968-72
HDA in Sculpture Manchester Polytechnic 1972.
Japan Scholarship, Research Student at Saitama University 1978-80.
Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
- SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
l 1993 Millfield Open Exhibition.
l 1995 Angela Flowers Selection, Newlyn Art Gallery.
l 1998 “In dent” Sculpture Show, Stroud House Gallery, Stroud, Glos..
l 1998 Critics Choice – Theo Waddington’s Selection, Newlyn Art Gallery.
l 1998 “Viewpoints” Artsway Gallery, Hants.
l 1999 “Stroud Open” Stroud House Gallery, Glos.
l 2000 “Japanese Connections” C Square Gallery, Chukyo University, Nagoya & Seto Ceramic and Glass Art Museum, Japan.
l 2002 “Construction” Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall.
l 2006 “Draws On” Artist’s Drawings, Falmouth Art Gallery UK..
l 2009 “NSA” Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
l 2011 RWA 159 Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol
l 2012 “Site-non-Site, Kestle Barton Gallery, Mannacan.
l 2012 “New Light on Newlyn”. Plymouth City Art Gallery and Museum.
l 2013 SW Academy of Fine Arts Open Exhibition. Lional Aggett Award, 1st Prize
l 2013 RWA 161 Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol.
l 2013 “Medals and Minatures” Sladmore Contemporary, London
l 2015 Works in Bronze and Other Media, Baroni Gallery London
l 2017 “Borders” Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance.
SELECTED SOLO AND SMALL GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
l 1995 “The Bloodshot Eye”, The Gallery in Cork Street ,London.
l 1995 “The Bloodshot Eye”, The Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham, Hotbath Gallery, Bath and Plymouth Arts Centre
l 1997 “Medusa’s Garden” CASA Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.
l 1997 Solo show Galerie 141, Nagoya, Japan.
l 1997 Toyota Automobile Company Gallery, Nagoya, Japan. Solo Exhibition.
l 2000 “Between East & West” Two Person Show, Daiwa Foundation Gallery, London
l 2002 “Gyo” 4 person show, Gallerie 141, Nagoya, Japan.
l 2004 Solo Exhibition, Gallery Kozuka, Nagoya, Japan.
l 2005 “Hidden Narratives” 4 person Gallery Naofu, Gifu, Japan.
l 2006 Solo Exhibition, Gallery Kozuka, Nagoya, Japan.
l 2009 Solo Exhibition, Gallery Kozuka, Nagoya, Japan.
l 2009 Solo Exhibition, Project Gallery “CLAS”, Nagoya University, Japan.
l 2009 “A Japanese Retrospective” Gallery Be Nagoya University of Arts, Japan
l 2010 “Intersecting Narratives” 2 Person Show, Owariasahi City Art Gallery, Japan
l 2011 British Art Medals Society, Annual Medal Commission
l 2012 “Et In Arcadia Ego” Solo Exhibition, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro
l 2014 “Unique Traces from Geological Time”. Solo show, Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax
l 2017 “West Meets West” 3 person show. Uillinn Arts Centre Skibbereen, Co. Cork Ireland
Undertaken many private commissions, landscape design and public artwork projects.
Work in private collections in the UK, EU and Japan
Yoshida Collection, Tokyo.
Collection of the British Museum.
l 1976 Arts Council of Great Britain, Major Award
l 1978-80 Japan Scholarship – Japanese Government (Monbusho) Research Scholar.
Research Programme: Survey and analysis of traditional arts of gardens, architecture and festivals, interpreted as environmental sculpture. Saitama University with extensive field work in Kyoto and throughout Japan. Scholarship included intensive language course in Japanese at Osaka University of Foreign Studies.
l 1989 South West Arts Award, “Working with Nature” Project, St Ives, Cornwall, UK.
l 2000 AHRC Grant awarded to pursue invited sculpture residency. Seto, Japan.
l 1st Prize South West Academy of Fine Arts Open Exhibition 2013
The Medal Journal Autumn 2019. ISSN0263 7707
“Talking with Philip Booth” Marcy Leavitt Bourne.
l 1989 “Working With Nature” Hayle, Cornwall. SW Arts.
l 1990 Dartington Hall, Devon. Japanese Garden.
l 1991 JT Design and Build, Multiple Landscape Project, Bristol.
l 1993 Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, Site Specific Sculpture.
l 1995 Courtyard Sculpture Gardens, Treliske Hospital, Truro.
l 2001 Falmouth Moor Redevelopment Project. Falmouth, Cornwall
l 2002 JT Design, Bristol: Landscape Design.
l 2002 Eden Project. Cornwall.
l 2005 The Globe Project for Expo Japan 2005, with Yasuo Terada, now installed at Chukyo University, Toyota Campus
l 2006 Water garden, Truro. UK
l 2010 Private Landscape Commission, Suffolk
l 2000 Sculpture Residency, Seto, Japan. AHRC Award.
l 2011 International Drawing Residency, Hanover, Germany.
