Phillip Chen

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Phillip Chen is descended from generations of sojourners and immigrants who labored under the force of anti-Chinese and Chinese Exclusion Act culture in the United States—the son of a “paper son” and “war bride” challenged by processes of legalization and marginalization. In his ongoing series of prints, Phillip Chen activates the dismantling of categories and the multiplicity of vision, utilizing a range of visual languages by which to explicate and redress cultural-historical events while infusing personal and global perspectives.

Phillip Chen received his graduate degree in print media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, most recently in solo exhibitions at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, and Museum of Chinese in America, New York. Major institutions have added his work to their permanent collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. His work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, and Iowa Arts Council. Phillip Chen is the recipient of the Louis B. Comfort Tiffany Award and Pollock Krasner Grant; he has been nominated for the Queen Sonja Print Award 2018, the largest prize given to an artist working in print media worldwide.

Serving as Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of Art, Phillip Chen teaches drawing and printmaking at Drake University.

Vimeo
Memory Prints: The Story of Phillip Chen