Phil Ashcroft
Phil Ashcroft is a painter and graphic artist based in London. His formative years in the early 1990's as a student of illustration were spent first at Harrow College of Art, then at St Martins College of Art and Design, a time which coincided with the emergence of widespread digital communication and image manipulation, a direct influence on his artistic practice.
Since 2002, when he was invited to paint in Graffiti Meets Windows 1 in Osaka with the Scrawl Collective, he has collaborated on live-painting projects in galleries and alternative spaces including Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2010 as part of No Soul for Sale, an exhibition celebrating Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary.
Ashcroft was a finalist in the UK’s prestigious John Moores Painting Prize in 2014 and a finalist in the Celeste Art Prize in 2007. In 2005 he created original film poster artwork for the British Film Institute’s UK cinematic re-release of the original Godzilla (1954) film.
His monograph Solar System Parameters, containing work from 2005-2013 and an essay by Paul Hobson, director Modern Art Oxford, was published by Gamma Proforma in 2013.
Show artworks
2020
- Fousion Finest 2020 – group show at Reial Cercle Artístic, Barcelona
- In Between Space, Time and a Pattern of Chaos – group show at Fousion Gallery, Barcelona
- Moonbeams – solo show at Bearspace, London
2019
- Six days in December (curated by Martin Gayford) – group show at Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London
2017
- Milestones – solo show at Gamma/Sector25, London
2016
- Fallout – solo show at CANAL, London
2015
- Cave Paintings – solo show at Lewisham Arthouse, London
2014
- John Moores Painting Prize 2014 – group show at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2013
- Galácticos – solo show at Gamma Transport Division, Edinburgh
2012
- We Love You – Less Is More Projects, Paris
- Futurism 2.0 – Blackall Studios, London
- Pick Me Up 3 (with Nelly Duff) – Somerset House, London
2011
- Please, Do Not Disturb – Less is More Projects, Paris
- Intervention Intervention (curated by Catherine Hemelryk, with Catherine Bertola, Martyn Cross, CJ Mahoney, Steve Messam) – Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton
- Print & Design Now, Bearspace, London
- Art in the Workplace, Devonshires (curated by Wallspace) – London
- Pick Me Up 2 (with Concrete Hermit) – Somerset House, London
2010
- Innocent Closet – SunBear Gallery, Edinburgh
- No Soul for Sale – Tate Modern, London
- Sleight of Hand – Recoat Gallery, Glasgow
- The Collection of the Late Mister X, Less is More Projects – Chic Dessin, Paris
- Print Now 2 – Bearspace, London
2009
- 3-2-1 Solstice – Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong
- The Free Art Fair 2009 (curated by Jasper Joffe) – The Barbican, London
- Perfect Present, Monika Bobinska – 242 Cambridge Heath Road, London
- Deptford X presents Flux, commissioned 48-sheet billboard, London
- 1984 – Kowalsky Gallery, DACS, London
- We Stride Worldwide – Concrete Hermit, London
- Artist of the Month Display: Phil Ashcroft – New Art Gallery, Walsall
- The Golden Record – touring exhibition, The Collection, Lincoln and g39, Cardiff
2008
- Wonder Island (curated by Emi Avora and Patrick Michalopoulos) – Schwartz Gallery, London
- Heart of Glass (curated by Flora Fairbairn and Paul Hitchman) – Shoreditch Town Hall, London
- Cans 2 Festival (collaboration with Will Barras) – Leake Street, London
- The Golden Record – The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (curated by Mel Brimfield)
- Special Relationship (curated by Ric Blackshaw) – Scion Space, Culver City, Los Angeles
2007
- Out of the Box and in the German Ryan Permanent Collection – New Art Gallery Walsall
- Celeste Art Prize 2007 – T2, London & touring; Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh
- Contemporary Art Society’s ARTfutures 2007 – Bloomberg SPACE, London
2006
- Toxicity – solo show at Margaret Harvey Gallery, UH Galleries, St Albans
- Elephant Technique – Village Underground, London
- My Life in Art, My Life in Art (curated by Justin Hammond) – London
2005
- Yeti in Hong Kong – solo show at EXIT/double-park, Hong Kong
- Contemporary Art Society’s ARTfutures 2005 – Bloomberg SPACE, London
- PSP Presents Cut-Out (Sony/Peter Saville) – Oki-Ni, London
2004
- Phil Ashcroft – solo show at Liberty, London
- All The People We Like Are Dead – 17 Kingsland Road, London
- Stick Em Up 2 – Revolver, Melbourne
- FleaMarket (curated by Anthony Gross) – temporarycontemporary, London
- Contemporary Art Society’s ARTfutures 2004 – City of London School, London
2003
- Toxic Landscapes – solo show at I Love…Art Gallery, Brussels
- Scrawl Collective, Lab101, Santa Monica
- Stick Em Up, Objex Art Space, Miami
2002
- Phil Ashcroft – solo show at Exposure, London
- Phil Ashcroft – solo show at Arc-Arts, Manchester
- Graffiti Meets Windows 1 – live painting at Hank-Yu, Osaka, Japan
2001
- Nitro Deluxe – solo show at Deptford X, London
1998
- Duel – solo show at Bedford Hill Gallery, London
1997
- Space is the Place / Future Worlds – solo show at Metro Cinema, London, W1 / Intoxica!, London W11
“Phil Ashcroft’s specific form of gestural, emotive abstraction combines flattened out 1980s style art deco and graffiti influences with references to American abstraction which often threaten to overwhelm the upper sections of his canvases. But it is an overtly Post-Modern type of abstraction, one that appears to forefronts process and gesture but is in fact computer generated translations of gestural painting reproduced as painting.
In other paintings, the work is entirely abstract but it is as if he has cropped or zoomed into the image, suggesting digital manipulations re-presenting or editing Modernist formats. This is further reinforced by the references to vector graphics and geometrical primitives in Ashcroft’s work, graphics based on mathematical expressions which are used to communicate non-subjective, procedural routes into abstraction at odds with the historical overtly-subjective precedents of Abstract Expressionism.”
– - Paul Hobson, Director, Modern Art Oxford; from Phil Ashcroft: Solar System Parameters, 2013
2013
Phil Ashcroft: Solar System Parameters, Gamma Proforma
2011
Cristian Campos, 1000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art, Rockport
2008
Ric Blackshaw, Liz Farrelly, Street Art: Making and Selling It, Rotovision
2001
Ric Blackshaw, Liz Farrelly, Mike Dorrian, Dave Recchia, Scrawl Too: More Dirt, Booth-Clibborn Editions