Recent News
ESCAPE MAGAZINE
Alison Kubler visits Peter Phillips Gallery in Noosa
Published on 10 August 2020 by ALISON KUBLER
It’s a perfect time to visit the Sunshine Coast, not just for the ocean, but also because the region boasts a vibrant arts community and two excellent public galleries: Noosa Regional Gallery and, a little south, Caloundra Regional Gallery, with regularly changing shows and excellent public programs and workshops.
One of my favourite, though less well-known (for now), art destinations is the studio and gallery of internationally celebrated and collected British Pop artist Peter Phillips, undoubtedly one of the pre-eminent artists of his generation.
A contemporary of David Hockney, Allen Jones, Brett Whiteley and RB Kitaj, among others, Phillips has lived all over the globe, but recently “retired” to the Noosa hinterland, although, at age 80, he still paints every day.
Nestled in a beautiful garden, the artist’s studio is open by appointment, and visitors can see a gallery of work, photographs and memorabilia and get a sneak peek of new paintings in progress.
By special appointment, too, you can meet the gregarious artist himself, have a private viewing and be regaled with stories of his famous art mates.
It’s incredibly special.
THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE
Finding hidden gems in a weekend Noosa treasure hunt
Published on 20 June 2020 by CATHY OSMOND
A craft brewery in the ’burbs: surely the perfect place to kick off a weekend in search of Noosa’s hidden gems, and the drive from the seaside playground of Hastings Street is promising. A few clicks and roundabouts south-west towards Eumundi, and the riverside cafes and tidy residential cul de sacs give way to the rollerdoors and empty verges of an unremarkable light-industrial pocket in Noosaville. Here, between a curtain place, a locksmith, assorted mechanics and a landscaping supplier, is Land & Sea Brewery – cavernous, fabulous and almost empty.
During a tour of the place, sampling pale ales, mango sours and lagers, something remarkable happens. I look up from a very engaging Gin Paddle to find the place heaving, the tables full of diners and the bar area teeming with tipplers (this was prior to the lockdown). Hidden gem? Land & Sea is a local success story, and the locals are onto it – even if at the time of publication, social distancing protocols mean heaving and teeming are still off the menu.
There’s no danger of social distancing faux pas at Phillips Gallery, a 15-minute drive from Noosa Heads and surely the most hidden of treasures. At the end of a forest-fringed road in Tinbeerwah, it’s not so much a gallery as an art sanctuary – a large renovated barn housing a studio and exhibition space, set on 15ha of exquisite landscaping. By appointment, you can meet resident artist Peter Phillips, a pop art pioneer and contemporary of David Hockney whose work is held in leading galleries across the globe. After decades living in Europe, the US and Central America, Phillips has settled down on the idyllic property with his daughter Zoe and her family. The charming Zoe champions not just the local art scene but prosecco-led hospitality, and back at Noosa Heads, a swim at Main Beach is in order to clear the head for dinner.
BROADSHEET
A New Gallery From British Pop Art Pioneer Peter Phillips in Noosa’s Tropical Hinterland.
Published on 22 July 2019 by WILL COX
He was at the forefront of a global art movement and has exhibited all over the world. Now Peter Phillips has settled on the Sunshine Coast, and his studio is open to all.
In the Noosa Hinterland, among the piccabeen palms and blackbutt trees, there’s a world-class art gallery you should see.
In the early ’60s, at the height of the pop art movement, the Birmingham-born artist Peter Phillips was in London at the Royal College of Art with contemporaries David Hockney and Allen Jones. His pioneering paintings and sculptures were splashed with advertising imagery, geometric forms and bright, bright colour. In the years since, he hasn’t let up, working solidly for six decades, travelling the world and showing in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries alongside Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and numerous other huge names in 20th-century art.
His six decades of work and global travel, living in London, Zurich and the Costa Rican wilderness, all converges in a gallery in a converted shed in the Queensland bush. Phillips Gallery is a functioning workspace, a tribute to the artist’s legacy, and a place to discover his work, most of which is for sale….
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
The pop art legend hiding in the hinterlands.
Published May 17, 2019 by Andrew Stafford
In the lush subtropical hinterlands behind Noosa Heads, 90 minutes north of Brisbane, a short dirt road takes you to the home of one of the pre-eminent artists of the last century.
In a large, bright studio, down a short incline from the home he shares with daughter Zoe and her partner, Peter Phillips – who made his name in the early 60s in the vanguard of British pop artists along with Derek Boshier, Allen Jones and David Hockney – continues to paint.
Along with large, more abstract recent works and some of his earliest sketches, a few of his most famous pieces are here, including the giant Art-O-Matic Riding High, which featured on the cover of a 1984 album by the Cars called Heartbeat City.
But Phillips left behind the style which made him famous, and which he helped pioneer, a long time ago. “I definitely don’t favour the early work,” he says. “I am excited about some of the newest pieces, possibly because it is what interests me most at the moment.”
Recently, Phillips, who is celebrating his 80th birthday, opened his studio to the public as part of the Noosa Food and Wine Festival. And despite whatever misgivings he may have, the event was called POP!, even though the work on display spanned his entire career.
Phillips will always be associated with his early work, even if he refuses to be defined by it. But that’s not his concern. “I’ve continuously evolved and done what I wanted to do, not what other people wanted of me,” he says….
AUSTRALIAN TRAVELLER
POP ART PIONEER - A forefather of Pop Art, British artist Peter Phillips now lives in the Noosa Hinterland where he is unveiling a Restrospective Exhibition of his work, staged in his large-scale new studio gallery in time for his 80th birthday.
Published May, 2019 by Imogen Eveson
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL TIMES
The festival that serves art with its food - The annual foodie fair has teamed up with chef Josh Lopez for the 80th birthday retropective and gallery opening of resident British pop artist Peter Phillips.
Published May 2nd, 2019 by Paul Best
Artist Peter Phillips can see the paradox. As a founding figure of the British pop art movement in the 1960s, he embraced commercial icons, as did many of his contemporaries. In his early artwork, the Birmingham-born artist, now living in the Noosa hinterland on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, adopted images from his working-class upbringing, such as arcade machines, pin-up girls and motorbikes.
Now, the commercial world is embracing him back. Fortune Distillery, launched in mid-March by Noosa Heads’ Land & Sea Brewery, is releasing a limited-edition specially crafted gin featuring Phillips' art on six labels, one from each decade of his career.