Phillip Stern shapes, assembles and paints organic and building materials, in large, colorful freestanding compositions. Intrigued by landscapes and natural forms entangled with, and altered by, human infrastructure, Stern seeks to meld and juxtapose the natural with the manufactured in sculpture. His current work sets woody vines into lumber frames, with copper water tubing that entwines or hangs freely in space, and aluminum/epoxy webbing. The largely unaltered vines represent nature struggling to survive in a humanly engineered thicket, or being cradled in caring mechanical arms.

 

As a child in New England, Stern felt personally connected to landscapes previously farmed, built and abandoned, or otherwise influenced by humans, exploring and learning to draw woods, fields and waterways. He spent a formative year in Europe with his family at age 10. His father, a scientist, encouraged him to study liberal arts for breadth of knowledge and abstract thinking. As a lifelong creative, he has worked in fields ranging from theater sets and product models to graphic design and illustration—endeavors that exercise the visual decision making crucial to strengthen work in the studio.

 

Stern has exhibited work in the Philadelphia region where he lives, as well as venues in Michigan and Maryland.

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Read artist statement here

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