Ciara Phillips at Trykkeriet, Bergen in 2019

BIO:


Ciara Phillips is a Canadian/Irish artist based in Bergen, Norway, since 2022. She studied Fine Art at Queen's University (BFA, Hons.) in Kingston, Canada, and at Glasgow School of Art (MFA) before establishing her studio in Glasgow in 2004. 

Phillips' process-lead approach to working with print, has gained her international recognition for both her individual and collaborative work in the field of contemporary art. She has worked as an educator and as an artist in community contexts since the late 1990s, and her long-term artwork, Workshop (2010 - ) - which engages people of all ages and backgrounds in thinking-through-making with her - has been exhibited widely in public institutions. Phillips is the initiator of several collaborative projects including: Poster Club (with Anne-Marie Copestake, Charlie Hammond, Nicolas Party, Tom O'Sullivan and Michael Stumpf, 2010-17); Press Room (2019) and Åpent Trykkeri (2018 - 2019). Her work has been exhibited at: The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; TATE Britain, London; Benaki Museum, Athens; Kunsthall Stavanger and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia as part of the Sydney Biennale. In 2014, Phillips was one of four nominees for the Turner Prize, the UK's most publicised art award, and in 2020 she received the world's leading award for graphic art, The Queen Sonja Print Award. She is currently Professor in Fine Art at The Art Academy: Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Bergen.



CURRENTLY ON SHOW:

Undoing it
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
22 March - 26 October 2025


Use as much pressure as possible (w/ Sam Ainsley & Scott Myles)
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
25 November 2023 through 2025



UPCOMING:

Tierisch
sipgate shows, Düsseldorf
27 March - 2 May 2025


OFF Biennale (w/ Sara Greavu)
Budapest, Hungary
8 May -  15 June 2025

Solo Exhibition
Haugesund billedgalleri
September 2025


CONTACT:

studio@ciaraphillips.com

Studio 425
Møllendalsveien 61
5009 Bergen

Warehouse
David Dale Gallery and Studios
161 Broad Street
Glasgow G40 2QR

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS :

2025
The Future is Today: Prints and the University of Warwick, 1965 to now, Mead Gallery, Coventry
The Caseroom, 60 Years of Letterpress etc., Reid Building, Glasgow School of Art

2024       
We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop (w/ Sara Greavu), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Microcosmos, Studio Forum, Bergen, Norway
25 Years in Print, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, UK

2023       
The Printmaker’s Art: Rembrant to Rego, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinbugh, UK
Use as much pressure as possible (collaboration w/ Sam Ainsley & Scott Myles), Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, UK
On the cusp of perfect logic, spinning apart into something, QSPA Bispevika, Oslo, Norway
Natten är full av blommornas frö, Lingbo Konsthall, Lingbo, Sweden
Under Press, Entrēe, Bergen, Norway

2022      
The Love of Print, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, UK
Queen Sonja Print Awards, QSPA Bispevika, Oslo, Norway
Love and odd posters, The Model, Sligo, Ireland

2021
New Arrivals: from Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK 
Hockney to Himid: 60 Years of British Printmaking, Pallant House, Chichester, UK
Open the book at a different page: Derry Film and Video Workshop (w/ Sara Greavu), Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Palimpsest - Reading between the signs, after the butcher, Berlin, Germany
We realised the power of it: Derry Film and Video Workshop (w/ Sara Greavu), 39th EVA  International, Limerick, Ireland
Mono, Glasgow Print Studio, UK
Queen Sonja Print Awards, QSPA Bispevika, Oslo, Norway
Materiality, collaboration and agency, Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, Finland

2019        
Whatever happened to that bridge we crossed?
, Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway
A dream of community: Norske Grafikere 100 Years, Kode, Bergen, Norway
Haugesund Internasjonale Tresnittfestival, Haugesund Billedgalleri, Norway
Brexit: Mail art from a small island, sipgate, Düsseldorf, Germany
Du coq à l'âne, Le Bel Ordinarie, Pau, France
Drawing Biennale 2019, Drawing Room, London, UK
Future Feminist Archive - Live! (w/ Jessie Street National Women’s Library), Wollongong Art Gallery, Australia

2018      
Dog Comes In, Cat Goes Out, Trykkeriet and Tag Team Studio, Bergen, Norway
Show Me Your Glow, Glasgow Print Studio, UK
21st Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia
The Medium is the Message, Black Church Print Studio, Dublin, Ireland
Innovative Printmaking, Glasgow Print Studio, UK
Love Letters, Art-Cade Galerie, Marseille, France
31 Women Painters, McClure Gallery, Montreal, Canada
Hope is Strong, Museums Sheffield, UK
What’s Love Got To Do With It, Reid Gallery, Glasgow, UK


2017        
Policy Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
New Edition (w/ Poster Club), Edinburgh Printmakers, UK
Systems for Saying It, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, UK
Yours and Mine is Ours, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
Throwing Shapes: Hard Fact / Emotional Fiction (w/ Michael Stumpf), Sipgate, Düsseldorf, Germany
Open Edition, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada

2016        
British Art Show 8
, Southampton Art Gallery, UK
Comrade Objects, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Canada
NEW Mud, NEW Wheat, NEW Machine (w/ Poster Club), Cooper Gallery, Dundee, UK
British Art Show 8, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, UK
British Art Show 8, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK
I still believe in miracles: 30 years of Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, UK
Cold Friends, Warm Cash, Western Front, Vancouver, Canada
What we recognise in others, CCA Derry-Londonderry, UK

2015        
British Art Show 8, Leeds Art Gallery, UK
Warm Friends, Cold Cash, Konsthall C, Stockholm, Sweden
MUD, WHEAT, MACHINE (w/ Poster Club), Shanghai Himalayas Museum, China
They printed it!, Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland
Printshop! (w/ Edwin Pickstone), Tramway, Glasgow, UK
Eyes on the Prize, Travelling Gallery, Scotland-wide
Bloused & Mintier (w/ Edwin Pickstone), blip blip blip, Leeds, UK
Textured Windows, Global Committee, New York, USA
The only way to do it is to do it, Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Finite Project Altered When Open, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Drawing Biennale, Drawing Room, London, UK
The Drouth Five-Oh, Reid Building, Glasgow School of Art, UK

2014        
Turner Prize 2014
, Tate Britain
, London, UK
Just You, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
I was a double, Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, USA
Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Just You, Galerie Praterstraße, Berlin

2013      
Workshop (2010-ongoing), The Showroom, London, UK
Funktion/Dysfunktion: New Art from Glasgow, Neues Museum Nurnberg, Germany
And More, Inverleith House, Edinburgh, UK
Riff/t, Baltic 39, Newcastle
, UK
There should be new rules next week, Dundee Contemporary Arts, UK
The Souls : A Twice-Told Tale, CEAAC, Strasbourg, France
40/40: 40 Years, 40 Artists, Glasgow Print Studio, UK
Drawing Biennale, Drawing Room, London, UK

2012        
Slippery Under Pressure
, OUTPOST, Norwich, UK
Pull Everything Out (w/ Corita Kent), Spike Island, Bristol, UK
21 Revolutions: Two Decades of Changing Minds at Glasgow Women’s Library, Intermedia, Glasgow, UK
The Irregular Correct, Fremantle Arts Centre, Australia
Pavilion, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Petrosphere, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, UK
Who Decides? (curated w/ Michael Stumpf and Skafte Kuhn) Stadtgalerie, Mannheim, Germany
Start with a practical idea, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zürich, Switzerland
Art Lending Library, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, UK
Double Trouble, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, UK

2011        
Petrosphere
, ReMap3, Athens
, Greece
Poster Club, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
Modern Languages, Galway City Museum and National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
Blueprint for a Bogey (w/ Corin Sworn and Nicolas Party), Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, UK
The only rule is work, Kendall Koppe Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Springtime will never be the same, Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt, Germany

2010        
Zwischenraum : Space Between,
Der Kunstverein, Hamburg
, Germany
Optimism and its signs, Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf, Germany
Aires de jeux: la police ou les corsaires (w/ Corin Sworn and Nicolas Party), Centre d’art contemporain de Quimper, France      
Every Woman a Signal Tower, Glasgow Print Studio, UK
Fizz Up and Dissolve, Glasgow Project Room, UK
Vocal Sans, 48 King Street, Glasgow, UK 
Field, Satellite, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK

2009      
Ciara Phillips
, Washington Garcia Gallery, Glasgow, UK

2008      
Recyclight
, Electrorama, Paris, France
Vault II, Bank Gallery, Carlisle, UK

2007      
I See Prisms,
an Open Eye Club event at G126, Galway, Ireland
Scottish Printmakers’ Summer Exhibition,  Glasgow Print Studio, UK
Vault, Bank Gallery, Carlisle, UK
Vowelled, Glasgow Project Room, UK

2006      
Bazaar, an Open Eye Club event at Tramway, Glasgow, UK
Scottish Collective, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
The Clamour of Ornament, Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, UK

2005      
From there to here
, Gallery Sowaka, Kyoto, Japan
The last chicken at Sainsbury’s, The Chateau, Glasgow, UK
Capricorn 25, Rocket Art Projects, Miami, USA
Do it now, TotalKunst, Edinburgh, UK

2004      
Leisure Paintings
, Leisure Projects, Montreal, Canada
MFA Glasgow 2004, Tramway, Glasgow


COMMISSIONS:

Use as much pressure as possible, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2023)
Press Room
, Crosby Library, Liverpool, UK (2019)
Åpent Trykkeri, Vaksdal Senter, Vaksdal, Norway (2018/19)
This, looped, V&A Dundee, UK (2018)
For & Against: Art, Politics and the Pamphlet, Radar, Loughborough, UK (2017)
Every Woman: Dazzle Ship Scotland, Price of Wales Dock, Leith, UK (2016)


AWARDS:

Queen Sonja Print Award
Visual Arts Project Award, Irish Arts Council
Haugesund Internasjonale Tresnittfestival Festival Prize
Turner Prize nomination
Creative Scotland Bursary Award
Drawing Room Bursary Award


RESIDENCIES:

The Model, Sligo, Ireland 
Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin, Germany 
Griffelkunst, Hamburg, Germany 
Trykkeriet, Bergen, Norway
Grafikens Hus, Stockholm/Södertälje, Sweden
Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, USA
Koerner Artist-in-Residence, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada

Zendai Art Museum (w/ Poster Club), Zhujiajiao, China

St. John's College, Oxford
, UK
Alte Feuerwache, Mannheim, Germany
Anna Löbner Glasgow/Düsseldorf Exchange
Cove Park, Peaton Hill, Cove, UK


PUBLICATIONS:

Free Hot Mess, designed in collaboration with Fraser Muggeridge, published by Agnes Etherington Art Centre. With essays by Melissa Gronlund, Jen Kennedy and Sunny Kerr (2022)
There are already flowers, artist’s produced in collaboration with students at UniArts Helsinki (2020)
What is good contact?, artist’s book made as part of Workshop at Kunsthall Stavanger (2019)
xo, artist’s book for Good Press, Glasgow (2014)
Irregular Bulletin 54, artist’s book made as part of Workshop at The Showroom, London (2013)
Irregular Bulletin 53, artist’s book in collaboration with Melissa Gordon, Jono Lewarne, Fraser Muggeridge, and Poster Club, Spike Island, Bristol (2012)

Works included in:
Utan Väggar - Grafikens Hus de mobila åren 2014 - 2021, Grafikens Hus, edited by Anna Henriksson (2022)
QSPA 10: The Queen Sonja Print Award 2011 - 2021, Press Publishing (2021)
Homeworks: A Cooking Book, catalogue for the Home Works programme at Konsthall C, eds. J. Richards and J. Strandberg (2020)
14-18 NOW: Contemporary arts commissions for the First World War Centenary, catalogue ed. Angela Koo, Profile editions (2019)
Du coq à l'âne, catalogue for the exhibition at Le Bel Ordinarie, edited by Paul McDevitt and Cornelius Quabeck (2019)
SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium and Engagement, catalogue of the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018)
31 Women Painters, catalogue of the exhibition at McClure Gallery at the Visual Arts Centre, Montréal (2018)
More Lasting Than Bronze, catalogue of Edinburgh Art Festival (2016)
British Art Show 8, Hayward Touring catalogue (2015)
Just You, edited by Martin Clark, Bergen Kunsthall (2014)
Generation Guide and Reader, edited by Moira Jeffrey, National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Life (2014)
21 Revolutions, edited by Dr Adele Patrick, Freight Books (2014)
O Kunstverein, Where Art Thou?, Beate Anspach and Florian Waldvogel eds., Distanz Publishing (2013)


PRESS:

2022        
MacMonagle, Niall, ‘What lies beneath: Group studios the key to creativity’, Irish Sunday Independent, 29/5/2022
Tipton, Gemma, ‘It’s almost like being in the thought space of my studio’, Irish Times, 31/03/2022
Rocks, Sean, Live interview on ARENA on RTÉ Radio 1, 30/03/2022
‘Ciara Philliips ‘Love and Odd’ comes to The Model’, The Sligo Champion, 15/03/2022
Finn, Alan, ‘The Model has revealed packed new programme’, The Sligo Weekender, 17/02/2022
Cordray, Julianne, ‘’Palimsest - Reading between the signs’ at after the butcher’, BerlinArtLink.com, 28/01/2022
2021        
Macmillan, Duncan, ‘Art review: New Arrivals, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’, The Scotsman, 7/12/2021
Ferguson, Brian, ‘Art treasures spanninig 110 years and worth up to £20m brought together for Edinburgh exhibition’, The Scotsman, 26/11/2021
‘The 39th EVA International Phase 3 Exhibition Programme Opens untii 14 November’, Limerick Leader, 15/10/2021
Stephen, Phyllis, ‘New Exhibition at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art begins in November’, 11/10/2021
Hannan, Martin, ‘Scotland to welcome one of its largest modern art shows in its recent history’, The National, 30/09/2021
2020      
‘Queen Sonja Print Award 2020: The Irish-Canadian artist Ciara Phillips is the recipient of the Queen Sonja Print Award 2020’, The Royal Court of Norway, 7/10/2020
2019       
‘Kunsthallen blir verksted’, Stavanger Aftenblad, 11/09/2019
2018        
Januszczak
, Waldemar, ‘Art review: The V&A, Dundee’, The Times, 16/09/2018
‘Can Glasgow School of Art rise from the ashes?’, Frieze, 25/06/18
2016        
Palermo, Alex, ‘Off the walls, Ciara Phillips: Comrade Objects’, The Queen’s Journal, 16/09/2016
Juddah, Hettie, ‘What not to miss at The 2016 Edinburgh Art Festival’, Artnet news, 29/07/2016
‘Art This Week: Yong Soon Min, Ciara Phillips and Ron Simmer’, Vancouver Sun, 21/03/2016
2014       
Jones, Jonathan, ‘Why is political art such elitist twaddle?’, The Guardian, 17/10/2014
Sherwin, Skye, ‘Ai Weiwei, Modern Toss, The Turner Prize: this week’s new exhibitions’, The Guardian, 27/09/2014
Luke, Ben, ‘Interview: Turner Prize finalist Ciara Philliips on printmaking, activism and campaigning for Justice for Domestic Workers’, Evening Standard, 25/09/2014
Brown, Mark, ‘Turner Prize 2014 shortlist unveiled’, The Guardian, 7/05/2014

2025Unless otherwise indicated, all images © Ciara Phillips