PHILIP CARPENTER
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In these drawings I moved from singular portraits of ordinary things (tools, flowers, toys) to images combining my interests in the prosaic and the precious—trash and treasure. I continued to use dolls and action figures acquired by rummaging through thrift store refuse—my ongoing backdoor survey of our disposable culture. These figures are alien to me—I don’t watch television and I’ve never been to Disney World. Prior to using them in my work I had studiously insulated myself from such, and I find my outsider’s detachment an advantage in selecting the objects. I pair these pop culture icons with facsimiles of traditional works of art, with both depicted actual size as often as I can. Employing my knack for mimicry that I’ve developed copying paintings to demonstrate techniques to my students, I meticulously render the objects and the facsimiles as my way of knowing them fully. Each combination is developed intuitively and individually. They are alike in obvious ways but they are often centuries apart. Fine Art encounters popular culture; the ideal meets mockery. Other combinations are less pointed, more poetic, but still inexplicably (in)appropriate.
PHILIP CARPENTER has made art and exhibited in Atlanta since 1978. He received a Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts grant in1989 and was a Hambidge Fellow in 2001. Notable exhibitions include: The 1994 Atlanta Biennial at Nexus Contemporary Art Center; “Revival of the Figure” at City Gallery East in 1995; “Personal Circumstances” at Spruill Gallery in 2000; “Transitions” at MOCA GA in 2002; “Work and Play” at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in 2005; “Primary Color” at Marcia Wood Gallery in 2005; “Manipulating the Commonplace” at Swan Coach House Gallery in 2007; 17th Color Pencil Society of America Exhibition in 2009 and 2015; “Play” at Spruill in 2009; “The Painted Photograph” at Southwest Arts Center; “40 over 40” at EBD4 in 2017. His work was exhibited in “Georgia Artists choose Georgia Artists” at MOCA GA and “Drawing Inside the Perimeter” at the High Museum of Art. His work is in private and public collections including the High Museum, MOCA GA, The Lagrange Museum, The Lamar Dodd Art Center at Lagrange College and Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. His work was included in the 2004 edition of “New American Paintings”