Tom Phillips

Quilts made from prostitutes' calling cards, poems constructed in copper and silver wire, skulls formed of glass or erotically covered in orange peel seem to be new departures in Tom Phillips' work. Yet the themes have been consistent throughout the years. Text, music and musings on art are re-explored, often through a new preoccupation with ornament arising from recent commissions such as current projects both in Westminster Cathedral of marble and mosaic and in a local project of urban regeneration in Peckham where he has lived and worked for four decades. Merry Meetings, drawings done on committee agendas, demonstrates how the inevitable commitments to public life can be turned into private art.