Tom Phillips, Skull: The Peeler, 1998 . Plaster and orange peel, 6 x 5¼ x 8 in / 15 x 13 x 20 cm . AFG 37397. Photo: Courtesy Flowers

NEW YORK, NY.- Flowers presents a survey exhibition by acclaimed British artist Tom Phillips titled Tom Phillips Works in 2, 2½ & 3 Dimensions. The show will run from October 8th through October 30th.

The exhibition showcases the artist’s fascination with the definitions of and relationships between objects, text and images. Phillips uses mixed media such as mud, hair, wire, collage and orange peel to create works which reference various literary and philosophical geniuses.

In Beckett Again 2010, an oil on palette work, Phillips splits the final quote from the famous Samuel Beckett novel, The Unnamable: “I can’t go on, I’ll go on.” Each half is placed on opposite sides of the palette allowing the viewer to choose a phrase to ponder upon entering and leaving the gallery.

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s provocative assertion, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world,” is spelled out twice in reverse on each side of the piece titled, Wittgenstein’s Dilemma 1999. In this silkscreen on acrylic cube, Phillips manages to simultaneously concur with and refute the statement. The words create the structure, and yet require the viewer to read them through the center with its infinite shifting reflections therein, thus becoming limitless.

A prominent figure in contemporary music, art, film, stage design, literature and criticism, Phillips is known for his pioneering explorations of word and image and his forty-year long Humument project, exhibited in part at Flowers in 2005 and in 2007 at the Dean Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Born in London in 1937, Tom Phillips attended St. Catherine’s College, Oxford and Camberwell School of Art. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1989 and was Chairman of the Royal Academy’s Exhibitions Committee from 1995 to 2007. He has had retrospective exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, London; The Royal Academy, London; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and The Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.

Tom Phillips, Alas 1998. Plaster, 6 x 5¼ x 8 in. Photo: Courtesy Flowers

Tom Phillips, Mallarmé: Role of the Dice, 2003. Silkscreen on acrylic cube, 5 x 5 x 5 in / 12.5 x 12.5 x 12.5 cm. AFG 37395. Edition 20. Photo: Courtesy Flowers

Tom Phillips, Wittgenstein's Dilemma 1999. Silkscreen on acrylic cube. Edition 20, 5 x 5 x 5 in. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  The Yin Yang of Sport & Art, 2009. Shaved tennis ball with the artist's hair, 2¾ in diameter x 7 cm diameter. AFG 47821. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  The Seven Ages of Man, 2008 Shaved tennis balls with the artist's hair, 3¾ x 4¾ x 27¼ in / 9.375 x 12 x 69 cm AFG 47822. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  Ah, the middle years, the best of times, 2010 Shaved tennis ball with the artist's hair, 2¾ in diameter / 6.985 cm diameter AFG 47823. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  After Henry James, 2009 Wire, 18½ x 24¼ x 2 in / 46.5 x 61.5 x 5 cm AFG 47923. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  Word Cross, 2008 Wire, 90¾ x 71¾ in / 230 x 182 cm AFG 47802. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  Beckett Again, 2009 Mixed media construction, 11¼ x 8¾ x 8 in / 28 x 22 x 20 cm AFG 47799. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  Beckett Again II, 2009 Mixed media construction, 6¾ x 10 in / 17 x 25 cm AFG 47800. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  The Library of Elsinore, 2007 Mixed media construction, 59¾ x 45 x 8 in / 151.7 x 114 x 20 cm AFG 47797. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.

Tom Phillips,  The Library of Elsinore (Fragment), 2006 Mixed media construction, 14½ x 19½ x 6¼ in / 36.8 x 49 x 15.5 cm. AFG 47798. Photo: Courtesy Flowers.