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Richard Phillips

September 11–October 20, 2012
555 West 24th Street, New York

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Richard Phillips, First Point, 2012 Oil on canvas, 92 × 149 ½ inches (233.7 × 379.7 cm)

Richard Phillips, First Point, 2012

Oil on canvas, 92 × 149 ½ inches (233.7 × 379.7 cm)

Richard Phillips, Black Water, 2012 Oil on canvas, 102 × 181 inches (259.1 × 459.7 cm)

Richard Phillips, Black Water, 2012

Oil on canvas, 102 × 181 inches (259.1 × 459.7 cm)

Richard Phillips, Sasha III, 2012 Oil on canvas, 84 × 149 ½ inches (213.4 × 379.7 cm)

Richard Phillips, Sasha III, 2012

Oil on canvas, 84 × 149 ½ inches (213.4 × 379.7 cm)

Richard Phillips, Adriana III, 2012 Oil on canvas, 96 × 144 ⅝ inches (243.8 × 367.3 cm)

Richard Phillips, Adriana III, 2012

Oil on canvas, 96 × 144 ⅝ inches (243.8 × 367.3 cm)

Richard Phillips, Adriana II, 2012 Oil on canvas, 132 × 96 inches (335.3 × 243.8 cm)

Richard Phillips, Adriana II, 2012

Oil on canvas, 132 × 96 inches (335.3 × 243.8 cm)

Richard Phillips, Lindsay III, 2012 Oil on linen, 96 × 144 ½ inches (243.8 × 367 cm)

Richard Phillips, Lindsay III, 2012

Oil on linen, 96 × 144 ½ inches (243.8 × 367 cm)

Richard Phillips, Adriana I, 2012 Oil on canvas, 108 × 157 ½ inches (274.3 × 400 cm)

Richard Phillips, Adriana I, 2012

Oil on canvas, 108 × 157 ½ inches (274.3 × 400 cm)

Richard Phillips, Sasha, 2012 Oil on canvas, 46 × 36 inches (116.8 × 91.4 cm)

Richard Phillips, Sasha, 2012

Oil on canvas, 46 × 36 inches (116.8 × 91.4 cm)

Richard Phillips, Sasha II, 2012 Oil on canvas, 84 × 150 ⅜ inches (213.4 × 382 cm)

Richard Phillips, Sasha II, 2012

Oil on canvas, 84 × 150 ⅜ inches (213.4 × 382 cm)

About

When we can’t determine what art is—when we get to that point where we’re not sure, that’s the strongest likelihood that we’re actually experiencing something great. That’s what the art world is most afraid of, because we don’t know how to assign value, whether it’s cultural or otherwise. In a way the films were meant to be a destabilizing artwork. They exist in another area, a zone where we were free to work.
—Richard Phillips

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Richard Phillips.

For Phillips, critique is as much an intrinsic material in the conception and staging of his work as the materials of their making. His conflating of subject and genre continues to provide challenging comment on the condition and reach of contemporary art.

Phillips has embarked on a new phase of work that hinges on the self-awareness of real-life subjects. Lindsay Lohan (2011) and Sasha Grey (2011), his first two films, made their debut at the “Commercial Break” film project at the 2011 Biennale di Venezia. In these "motion portraits ", the notorious actresses pose erotically—Grey in a modernist John Lautner home, and Lohan in an aquamarine infinity pool. Both actresses project self-conscious recognition in their performances and in turn point toward the transformative potential of narrative action, framed by their compelling beauty. Phillips’s third film, First Point (2012) marks his second collaboration with Lohan and third collaboration with legendary surf filmmaker Taylor Steele. A contemporary film noir, First Point juxtaposes haunting nocturnal imagery with surf sequences in which female pro-surfer Kassia Meador (Lohan's acknowledged stunt double) and Lohan herself appear.

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