Phil Irish

Biography

Being an artist has become, for Phil Irish, a way of exploring the world, stimulating imagination, and of sparking deep exchange with others. Irish attained an MFA at York University and a BA in Fine Art and English Literature from the University of Guelph. He has exhibited his artwork in public museums, commercial galleries, and artist run centres across Canada. His contribution to the Francophonie International Painting Competition was exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, and his work was twice shortlisted by the Kingston Prize for Canadian Portraiture. As landscape figures prominently in his work, his research has taken him to the Rockies, the oil sands, and most recently a week on an icebreaker in the Canadian arctic.

Research Interest

Contemporary painting, collage, and installation art; Iconoclasm in modernist avant gardes; Dialogue between faith and art; Art and Environmentalism; Neo-Baroque, and imagery of ornament and excess.