Debra Phillips

Debra Phillips (born 1958) is an Australian artist. Her main practice is photography but she also works across other forms such as sculpture and moving image. She has been an exhibiting artist since the 1980s, is a part of many collections, and has won multiple awards for her work. Phillips resides in Sydney and is a senior lecturer at The College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.
Biography
Debra Phillips was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1958. In 1977, Phillips relocated to Sydney, Australia, to start a Dip. Art at Sydney College of the Art, University of Sydney, NSW. Starting in the 1980s, her works have been a part of many solo and group exhibitions across Australia, totalling in 54 exhibitions. Still residing in Sydney today, Phillips is a senior lecturer at The College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.
Work and publications
Debra Phillips was one of the women artists of the 1980s and early 1990s. Her work encapsulates her personal interests in questioning different forms of representation histories and identity. Recurring themes throughout her work include disappearance and obsolesce, contemporary life and utilising photography as a structure of representation and how it supposedly shows a true perception of the real world. Her work represents a collapse of time into the present. It is self-consciously aesthetic, this allows the viewer to think if the images resist becoming just surface appearances and if they invite fear of depth/deeper meanings.
Phillips is represented in private, national, and international collections. Her work has been published in numerous places including: Twelve Australian Photo Artists (Blair French and Daniel Palmer, Sydney: Piper Press, 2009) and in Look: Contemporary Australian Photography Since 1980 (Anne Marsh, Melbourne: MacMillan Art Publishing, 2010).
Notable works
Balance of obsolescence (1987)
This series of Type C photographs (100.0 × 100.0 cm) was a part of a solo exhibition at the First Draft gallery, Sydney, and also group exhibition "Constructed Images" at The Australian National Gallery, Canberra in 1987. In 1989 it was a part of exhibition "Tableaux Mourant: Photography and Death", Fine Arts Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart.
Now it is a part of the Art Gallery of NSW collection.
Series "The Colonisation of time" X (1990)
This cibachrome series (119 × 149 × 5 cm) by Debra Phillips focuses on photography's links to science and technology as well as placing a large emphasis on westernisation. The title suggests issues between European colonisation within Australia and the massive technology progress throughout the globalised world. Each photograph in the series features a large X that crosses the image. This help supports the interrelated themes of colonisation, photography, time, representation, technology and the land.
Untitled 2 "From the street" (1997)
This image is a part of the series "From the Street" which includes 18 black and white images printed onto metallic silver paper, aluminium (100 × 150 cm). The series was created in the earlier days of Phillips's practice when she had an interest in traces of everyday life, surrounding street and graffiti. When viewed individually this image becomes an abstract element that alludes to the mutable and ephemeral qualities of codes.
Exhibitions
Total of 54 group or solo exhibitions both national and international. Exhibitions include galleries such as:
2008, "Contemporary Australia: Optimism", Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
2006, "The Captain's Ghost: Three contemporary artists on Cook", Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
2004, "COFA Fundraising Exhibition", Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, NSW.
2000, "Death and Decoration". Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS.
1998, "Site", Parliament House, Canberra, ACT.
1996, "Photography is Dead! Long Live Photography!", Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW.
1995. "Debra Phillips: Work 1992-1995", Art Gallery New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
1981, with Rick Bolzan, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney, NSW.
Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Tate Gallery, London, England, UK
Library of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, United States
The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
Parliament House, Canberra, ACT
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Artbank
Books
Debra Phillips, Index, Sydney, 1995
Debra Phillips, Source, Sydney, 1999
Awards
2007, Recipient – COFA Travel Grant (Academic Staff)
2005, National Photographic Purchase Award, Albury Regional Art Gallery
2002, Australia Council New Work Grant
1996, Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Fund Fellowship
1982, Recipient – Australia Council Visual Arts Board Travel Grant
References
Australian women artists
1958 births
Living people