Consumer Reports

Pat Phillips explores the social dynamics of America in his new series of paintings, Consumer Reports. The artist describes the series as follows: "Consumer Reports is a series that examines our relationships to goods. In a free-market economy, with an ever-increasing wealth gap, these paintings explore the perception of value and function for upward mobility. Though irrational expectations that disproportionately affect low/middle-class consumers, clothing and everyday items become superficial tools used in an attempt to gain both cultural and socioeconomic ground." Pat Phillips's paintings combine personal and historical imagery into surreal juxtapositions, drawing on his experience living in America to mediate complex questions of race, class, labor and a militarized culture. He found his way to art through painting and photographing box cars. His paintings fuse this graffiti background with a sophisticated study of figuration. He embraces this entry point, creating paintings and drawings that address the social and political threads running through American culture. The work has an immediacy, capturing the dynamism of the urban street. Images of sneakers, bootleg luxury handbags, cops and looters spin through his works. Cartoon characters interact with young men's bodies. Raw graffiti tags often animate the backgrounds. Phillips's paintings reflect the perspective of a young Black artist encountering the cultural contradictions of American capitalist society. The works are informed by his own direct experience as well as the movies, music, and TV commercials that have shaped his vision. The vernacular is combined with astute art historical references. A crime scene unfolds in Baroque space. The artistís notes on Untitled (melanindrammer), one of the most intriguing paintings in the show, describes his hybrid approach: "A Mickey Mouse-esk character wearing Jordan 12s (shoes) is seemingly reaching for a pallet of bricks stacked like a house. Based on news and eyewitness accounts, pallets of bricks have been planted by law enforcement to help incite violence and looting during BLM protests. Riot geared figures, marching boots and red laced dress shoes are seen marching through the background. Red laces, in neo-nazi sub-culture, are earned and worn on Dr. Martens boots after an individual draws blood (assaults someone). The moon (taken from a character from the 90s cartoon Ren & Stimpy) overlooks in delight...anticipating what will happen next. The character wears blue latex gloves (unlike Mickey's traditional white gloves). This represents the uncertainty that many Americans felt...not only while performing their daily task (fear of getting sick) but those who took to the streets in protest during the deadly pandemic. Untitled (melanindrammer) is a reference to the 1933 minstrel Mickey Mouse film Mickey's Mellerdrammer." Pat Phillips was born in Lakenheath, England, in 1987 but grew up primarily in rural Louisiana. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia. Phillips's work was featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. His paintings are in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Albright-Knox, the New Orleans Museum of Art, among other public collections. His work was included in Punch, curated by Nina Chanel Abney at Jeffrey Deitch in 2019.