Philippa Schofield

Recent work is concerned with the depiction of everyday aspiration. Images of real suburban houses, well maintained and cared for, are metaphors for personal identity and social positioning. The work analyses and reflects the signifiers of class and taste displayed both overtly and subtly by the domestic built environment. The suburb as a social construct that generates ambivalent reactions from insiders and outsiders, from both its willing inmates and its escapees, is a rich subject. Its ability to represent freedom and individuality as well as restriction and conformity at the same time provokes inquiries into class, aesthetics, taste, status and aspiration.
Other recent work uses the domestic interior, especially the artificially constructed versions in show homes, magazines and retail outlets as source material to investigate ideas of the ideal and the belief in consumerism’s ability to deliver it. The paintings investigate the idea that the perfect life might be achievable if the right lifestyle can be found and purchased.

Education:

1983 – 84 Foundation Art and Design – Hounslow Borough College
1984-87 BA (Hons) Fine Art – Cardiff College of Art
1988 Qualified Teachers Status
2007 MA Fine Art Painting - Wimbledon College of Art

Employment:

1988 – 92 Strode’s Sixth Form College
1992 - 97 Camden School for Girls
1997 – 2000 Hinchley Wood School
2001 – present Camden School for Girls

Exhibitions:

November 2001 Battersea Contemporary Art Fair
May 2002 Battersea Contemporary Art Fair
June 2002 Landmark Art Fair
August 2002 Teddington Artists at Bushy House
September 2002 NPL Art Competition at Institute of Physics
October 2002 Affordable Art Fair
November 2003 Zoran’s Delicatessen
June 2003 Landmark Art Fair
November 2003 Battersea Contemporary Art Fair
June 2004 Landmark Art Fair
November 2004 Battersea Contemporary Art Fair
June 2005 Landmark Art Fair
March 2006 Wimbledon College of Art Interim Show
June 2006 Landmark Art Fair
March 2007 Wimbledon College of Art Interim Show
September 2007 Wimbledon College of Art MA Show

Galleries:
Langton Street Gallery London
Art House Studios Nottingham
The Vanilla Room Farnham