Phillip Eglin (1959 – )

Philip Eglin was born in Gibraltar and studied at Staffordshire Polytechnic and later at the Royal College of Art in London. Since graduating he has held a number of teaching posts. His work has been exhibited widely and in 1996 he was the winner of the Jerwood Prize. Eglin’s pieces are various: some are tiny slab-built jugs, try-outs for larger pieces that were never made. There are plates with painted faces or with modelled scenes that refer, or relate, to masterpiece painting, but his better known works are figures, mostly female and often accompanied by cherubs. Eglin’s work can be seen as a link between the historic and contemporary as they draw references from both classical painting and 18th Century figurines. Eglin often uses the Madonna, Venus or the Seated Nude as his model and to his own ends, but for all the history alluded to by these icons these women are resolutely contemporary. They are freely painted and decorated with sweeping brush marks, stencils, transfers, drawings and writings that bring to mind urban graffiti and fly-postered walls.

http://www.philipeglin.com/