In Phillips’ works, the canvas may be loosely seen as a layered setting of a play or a cartoon with a cast of characters whose activities gradually become discernible to the viewer. Cartoonish entities emerge from abstract forms, often extending from brightly colored foregrounds, backgrounds, and in-between spaces. Phillips’ works are also depictions of moods, conveyed through the characters’ facial and physical expressions, as well as through unexpected color palettes.

Ambiguity is a key element of Phillips’ paintings: not everything is what it seems. Rectangles, triangles, circles and other distinct and overlapping shapes are revealed upon further observation to be teeth, beaks, pupils, and other features. While other overtly recognizable characteristics seem to drift in and out of definition, creating a continuous tension between representation and pure color.

In her paintings, Phillips uses a variety of techniques and approaches — from paint drippings to dense textures of brushstrokes and from chiaroscuro to gradient-like layouts of paint — often juxtaposed as if to comment on the inescapability of technique or to ask why an artist would embrace technique at all.

Rachel Phillips: Scrambled