Phillips's work attempts to expose a tension between the hope for an egalitarian society and the reality of continued discrimination. His aim is to materialize concepts we wrestle with in larger conversations around justice and equity. The decisions to articulate these social quandaries provides an opportunity to discuss how our perspectives are implicated within them. Phillips's uses performance and sculpture to create a space where these dilemmas can be further discussed and explored. Sculptures (or structures as he has come to call them) are the physical representations of systems that are sought to be changed. Performance is used to show how he (and we) have come to relate to these systems and how we (and he) hope to destroy or transcend them.
Julian Louis Phillips is an artist that lives and works in New York City. He has exhibited and performed in New York, Newark, NJ, and Stamford, CT. Currently he is a More Art Engaging Artist Fellow and a JCAL Jerome Foundation Resident Artist Fellow. He attended Social Practice Queens at Queens College where he received his MFA.
Julian Louis Phillips' residency at NARS is made possible by the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning.
