Woodward Lecture Series: Pat Phillips

Lecture featuring Pat Phillips, whose paintings combine personal and historical imagery into surreal juxtapositions.
About this Event

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) and the College for Creative Studies (CCS) proudly present this event as part of CCS's esteemed Woodward Lecture Series.

Pat Phillips’ paintings combine personal and historical imagery into surreal juxtapositions, drawing on his experience living in America to meditate on complex questions of race, class, labor and a militarized culture. Phillips, who grew up primarily in a small town in Louisiana, found his way to art through painting and photographing boxcars. He embraces this entry point, creating paintings that discuss the Americana subculture, as well as the current social and political threads running through American culture. His works often contain references to confederate flags, fences, and guns—all objects that suggest the violent underpinnings of this country and its institutions.

Pat Phillips (b. 1987 Lakenheath, England) was raised in Louisiana. In 2019, he presented work at the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Solo exhibitions include Consumer Reports, Jeffrey Deitch, New York; Strange Suburb, M+B, Los Angeles, CA; and It Was Sunny, but Then It Started to Rain, PPOW, New York. He has participated in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and Joan Mitchell Center. His first publication Pat Phillips: Quality Control was released in June 2023. He has also been featured in Juxtapoz Magazine and Hyperallergic. In 2024 he was a fellow at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA where he was included in the 3-person exhibition, Black Like That: Our Lives As Living Praxis. His work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL; and New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA, among others. Pat Phillips lives and works in Pennsylvania.

It will take place in the Wendell B. Anderson, Jr. Auditorium in the Walter B. Ford II Building on the CCS Ford Campus (301 E. Frederick, Detroit, MI, 48202). Free parking is available in the CCS Brush St lot (on Brush just north of Frederick).