Phil Day (born in August, 1973) is an Australian artist. He is formally recognised as a Notable Graduate[1] from the Graphic Investigation Workshop, Australian National University (ANU), alongside Alex Hamilton, Paul McDermott, Danie Mellor and Paul Uhlmann.
Day, a lineal descendant of Wong Ah Sat, was born in Goulburn, New South Wales, living in the same house for his entire childhood and adolescent years. At age 16, he briefly trained as a graphic designer at the NSW Police Academy. Rather than pursue graphic design as a career, Day enrolled at the local technical college to study art. In 1992, he moved to Canberra to study at the Canberra School of Art, ANU (graduating with a Bachelor of Art with First Class Honours). While still a student, he worked as an illustrator and caricaturist at The Canberra Times.[2] He abandoned this path in 1996, choosing instead to work as a printer, binder, and designer of books for the Edition + Artist's Book Studio, ANU. In 1997, Day co-founded Finlay Press, and in the same year he lost the vision in his left eye due to a congenital deformity. In early 2010, he moved to Melbourne, founded Mountains Brown Press, and met his future wife. Together they moved to Toronto, Canada (2010), then to Brooklyn, NY (2011). Day lives in Melbourne,[3] with his wife and their daughter.
"[Day] looks at things for himself … This is a rare quality, particularly when so many practitioners in the visual arts claim to be bored with image-making and, as a substitute, flirt with ideas."[5]
Primarily, Day's work is pictorial: at times detailed and realistic, while at other times brief and gestural – Peter Keneally describes Day's brief-gestural drawings as: deliriously smudgy and slapdash.[6]
There is an understated mood in Day's work, both in subject and material. His pictures invite the viewer into a one-on-one relationship with common things, this includes domestic objects, urban animals, garden plants, and the occasional portrait. It also includes memories, thoughts, and imaginary figurative inventions. All of which, are almost exclusively worked on modest size sheets of paper with modest materials (often coloured pencil and watercolour). In 2003, Sasha Grishin, art historian and critic, said:
"There is a certain disarming honesty in [Day's] drawing, which are as much visual observations as they are thought-pictures ... between the seen and observed reality, and the realm of abstract thoughts and carnal desires."[7]
" ... some of the most exciting untraditional private press work in Australia."[11]
In 2010, Day moved to Melbourne, and founded his private press – Mountains Brown Press. No longer having access to printing presses, Day altered his approach in order to continue his interest in making books. The most notable change being each book written in pencil by his hand. State Library of Victoria, History of the Book manager, Des Cowley observed:
"… [Day's Mountain Brown Press artist's books] represent an art stripped back to basics, a cathartic attempt to re-engage with the physical properties of the book, without the intervening layer of metal type and presses … there is a sense of spiritual renewal to be found here."[12][13]
As of 2017, Day began collaborating with lithographer Adrian Kellett (of Sunshine Editions); artist and intaglio printer Greg Harrison; and designer binder Suzanne Schmollgruber (of Centro del bel libro Ascona, Switzerland).
Day's earliest writings appear in two Finlay Press titles: Familiar Objects (2005),[14] and Goodbye Eggcup (2006).[15] From 2010 to 2013 all Mountains Brown Press titles contain his writing. In 2012, Day wrote an essay for publication and review: Why Qi Baishi is better for me than Damien Hirst.[16] Scott McCulloch, Australian Book Review, commented:
"Spontaneous in his approach, Day utilizes various bits of visual information: tables, lists, Shakespeare quotes, typography that verges on concrete poetry … it sounds messy, but the connection and slippages of these digression make for an intoxicating and dissonant piece of prose."[17]
Exaggerated self-reflection [...] makes the joy of beauty, or art, hard to hold. It's like picking up fresh snow with the dirtiest mittens. Not only do you tarnish the clean white snow, you can also no longer feel its soft powdery touch.
Phil Day, 2014. Why Qi Baishi is Better for Me than Damien Hirst.[18]
Day has continued to write using 'connections', 'slippages', and 'digressions', evident in his A Chink in a Daisy-Chain (2017), the first in a three-book series. A Chink in a Daisy-Chain concentrates on the embattled nature of individual intellectual and creative autonomy. Fiona Capp (Sydney Morning Herald) comments:
"In the spirit of the absurdist and playful logic that characterises the Alice books, A Chink in a Daisy-Chain takes us into the rabbit warren of Day's mind as he free associates, one thought leading to another in a stream of consciousness ..."[19]
Lost Art: two essays on cultural dysfunction (with Julian Davies) (2012) ISBN9780977567768
A Chink in a Daisy-Chain (with a foreword by Anna Welch) (2017) ISBN9780994516527
Contributions to journals and newspapers
Beating Richie Knucklez: the making of a Space Invaders world champion, (Mon 12 Nov 2018)[20]
Three Artists' Relationship to the Book, Imprint, Volume 49 (2014)
When a Book Becomes a Work of Art, Verso, 5. (2017) ISSN 2205-4405
Illustrated books
I995, while still a student, Day held his first solo exhibition displaying his illustrations for François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel. Inspiration from these early illustrations have carried into Day's recent work. Dorothy Johnston, Sydney Morning Herald, observed:
His line drawings enhance the mood of each scene, lightening it, sending up characters locked in earnest or self-serving conversation, or hopelessly in love; at other times giving a darker, sinister flavour to events ... revellers disguised as politicians, celebrities and cartoon animals tumble over one another right out of the frame.
Day has created illustrations (cover or page) for the following titles.
The Harp & The Sword, John Kelly Q.C. (1996) ISBN0867861819
Exhibitions
The first public exhibition of Day's work was in Switzerland at Museum of Art, Le Locle, Switzerland(1995).[23] His books and drawings have since been exhibited in numerous exhibitions both locally and abroad. Most recently: Mirror of the World, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (2016); and Impact 9, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China (2015).
2020, Day was invited by Julia Leigh to illustrate her cartoon captions and concepts for submission to The New Yorker. Their first cartoon was published in the 31 August 2020 issue of The New Yorker under the initials 'J.P'. New Yorker cartoonist, Michael Maslin, said of Day's illustrative style: '[...] reminded me, stylistically, in various ways, of Felipe Galindo, C.E.M.[Charles Elmer Martin], and ever-so-slightly, Edward Gorey.'[25]
2018, Day was invited to compete at Meow Wolf's Score Wars: Galaga World Championship, Santa Fe, New Mexixo, USA.[26]
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References
↑ Michael Agostino, The Australian National University School of Art: A history of the first 65 Years (Canberra, ANU, 2009), p. 243.
↑ Sheridan Palmer (29 June 2017). "'Unsung Artist' became an admired mentor for many". The Sydney Morning Herald. Upon moving to Melbourne, Day joined a small social group of artists "A group of older artist met with Tony Woods every Saturday morning for coffee and conversation, including Alex Selenitsch, Petr Herel, Keith Stream, Alex Hamilton, Phil Day, and Kevin Lincoln, to discuss what each were doing."
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