Brad Phillips: What You Do When You Don’t Go Outside | Harper's Apartment
Brad asked me to write this press release in the first person for him. I’ve never written about art, I take photographs.
I’m happy to try this for Brad, because I like him and he’s only been nice to me. Because I know he doesn’t like doing them, and I didn’t have anything else to do, so thought why not. Brad sent me a point form attempt at expressing his intentions for this exhibition.
Reading what he sent, I decided the point form was already enough, and therefore had to do less work for Brad. I sort of rearranged stuff and added the dashes.
Here’s to nothing:
- The title of this exhibition refers to months long periods of time spent alone in my apartment, or alone in my apartment with my wife Cristine during the past year.
- In the past, most paintings I’ve made refer in some way to my daily life. Paintings of parts of my studio, of Cristine, of my medication, and the contents of my refrigerator. My toilet paper roll.
- All of these images expressed my activity, and I wanted to focus on my passivity, if that makes sense to you.
- Growing up in Canada means growing up on American media. Movies, MTV, television shows, The Academy Awards, Buffalo Nightly News, the NBA, CNN, Phil Donahue, Columbine, Hinckley shooting Reagan. Whenever I feel anxious or depressed I watch American movies and television shows, because the tropes and clichés of American movies and television shows are extremely soothing to me. American popular culture has remained a constant component of my daily thinking and experience since February 1974.
- I watch a lot of YouTube top 5 most haunted videos or top 5 most unsolved murders with strange handwritten clues.
- I love the NBC logo. I think it’s one of the most beautiful images in the world. I find it really soothing and calming, that bird.
- The other thing I do at home is lay down. I lay down alone and I lay down with my wife. People have written that I am a ‘realist’ painter but I’m unsure what that means except I paint stuff that is real to my daily life, which I don’t think is being like Courbet or someone.
- I watch television. I think about television. I watch and think about movies. I watch and interact with and think about my spouse who is American. America is both what I’m most frightened of but also most comforted by.
- Everything in this exhibition comprises what has informed my interior world and aesthetic sensibilities. Before I just presented my aesthetic sensibilities without context as to how they came to be shaped.
- The original title of this show was America Is My Favourite Movie, but I didn’t want to be accidentally political, as political art tends to almost always be boring. Or at least my politics are boring.
- I hope that people will enjoy these paintings. I’ve worked hard to make the best exhibition possible.
Daniel Arnold
February 18, 2019
Exhibitions
- June 26, 2021 - July 21, 2021
Potent - June 26, 2021 - July 21, 2021
Nicasio Fernandez: Within and Without - June 26, 2021 - July 21, 2021
Frederic Tuten: Works on Cardboard - June 10, 2021 - July 10, 2021
Ryan Wilde: Venus Su Misura - May 13, 2021 - June 26, 2021
Austyn Weiner: Morning Wood - May 22, 2021 - June 23, 2021
36 Paintings - May 29, 2021 - June 23, 2021
Matthew King: Paintings on Aluminum - May 6, 2021 - June 5, 2021
Dan Flanagan: Everything Is a Lot of Things - April 10, 2021 - May 16, 2021
JJ Manford: View From Gowanus - April 8, 2021 - May 8, 2021
Ho Jae Kim: Butterfly Dream - April 1, 2021 - May 1, 2021
Joani Tremblay: The whole time, the sun - February 18, 2021 - March 26, 2021
Scott Kahn: Afternoon of a Faun - see all exhibitions