Alongside works on paper and videos, Julia Phillips works primarily with ceramics and metal, creating sculptures reminiscent of functional objects. Her works are metaphors for social and psychological experiences, metaphors that are both mechanical and bodily, and that typically focus on experiences of power relations between individuals or between an individual and an institution.
Julia Phillips (b. 1985) was born in Hamburg and lives and works in Chicago and Berlin. She has had solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1 in New York and Kunstverein Braunschweig, and was featured in the Berlin Biennial, the New Museum Triennial, the Venice Biennial, and the Whitney Biennial. Her work has been shown at museums including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her work is held in numerous public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt a. M., the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Museum of Modern Art New York. Julia Phillips recently completed her first public art work commission titled Observer, Observed for the NY High Line and published her first monograph titled “Energy Exchange” with Mousse Publishing, Milan.