Phill Hopkins’s Impressionistic Landscapes Transform Painting Into a Form of Poetry

Originally from Bristol and currently based in Leeds, England, British artist Phill Hopkins (b. 1961) works across drawing, photography, and sculpture, but maintains a practice primarily focused on painting. As a child, Hopkins struggled in many classes in school but excelled in art—possibly attributable to his diagnosis of dyslexia. The artist has stated that, “The marks in my work are perhaps a kind of poetry or prose. My marks need to be precise, my best ‘handwriting’ and not slapdash. As I am dyslexic, these marks, more than English, feel like my first language. I’m literate in this tongue.”

Hailing from a working-class family, Hopkins initially took up work at a warehouse and subsequently a bakery. He was eventually accepted by Goldsmiths College of Art in London, where he received his B.F.A in 1985. Since then, he has had more than two dozen solo exhibitions across the United Kingdom and has been included in group exhibitions internationally. His work is in private collections around the world and may be found in the collections of the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; and Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, among others.

Featured image: Phill Hopkins, Bardsey Island I (2022). Courtesy of Kadip Gallery, London.

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