PHIL FROST

New York artist Phil Frost creates work that combines the raw, gritty edge of the street with an elegant, painterly aesthetic. Frost first became known in the early 1990s for his involved installations on the streets of New York. Locations were scouted, measured and analyzed for feasibility before he painstakingly created the artwork in his studio. Works, usually composed of numerous panels were then affixed to his targets under cover of darkness. In 1994, these street works inspired a PBS documentary feature on the artist. His transition to the gallery world was inevitable and after a string of strong showings in group exhibitions, he mounted his first solo exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, in 1999.

His found object constructions and works on canvas are a multi-layered combination of colorful, almost comic-strip portraits and intricate typography overlaid with bold graphic symbols rendered, more often than not, in correction fluid. Words and slogans that are a hybrid of numerous languages, both real and imagined, are layered within the works to create compositions that are spiritual in nature, transmitting inner quickening as mantra or gestural prayer. His artwork has been featured on album covers for popular recording artists DJ Shadow and Sick Of It All. In recent years, Frost has continued to show his work in numerous exhibitions, including a second showing at Jack Shainman in New York (2001) and his first American museum exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (2002).