Philip Eglin

Philip Eglin‘s work carries references to a heterogeneous array of sources. Inspiration for recent figures comes from Northern Gothic religious woodcarvings, Chinese export porcelain, English folk ceramics and the language of symbols used on contemporary packaging. His interest in such artefacts is not solely because of their intended aesthetic, but extends to the characteristic shapes and marks that are found on the underside and backs of things.

He is concerned to achieve ‘... a balance between the high and the lowbrow, the reverent and the irreverent, the raw and the subtle, the sophisticated and the crude ’. These interests and intentions are embodied in a recent series of porcelain Madonnas. Capturing the raw power of early religious statuary and their characteristic scars of time, they also bear traces of prosaic modern consumer culture - such as the vestigial imprint of a squashed plastic bottle that was used in the moulding of a body, and in the commercial symbols discovered on the limbs and drapes of the figures.

Born in 1959, Eglin trained at Staffordshire Polytechnic and at the Royal College of Art. His work can be found in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

He was the winner of the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts: Ceramics in 1996.

special projects

Tiles

series work

mugs, cups and plates

previous exhibitions

Borrowings
10 February to 29 April 2007
Nottingham Castle Museum exhibition

16 June to 29 July 2006

28 November 2003 to 10 January 2004

publications

Please click Publications for a list of illustrated exhibition leaflets and other related literature available from Barrett Marsden Gallery

limited editions

please see newly launched limited editions by Barrett Marsden Gallery artists

email: info@bmgallery.co.uk

link to collections

Victoria and Albert Museum
British Council Collection
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Crafts Council Collection, London
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge