PHILIP MEYER

Paintings

13th to 25th May 2013

The Framers Gallery

36 Windmill Street

London W1

Contact: 07510 060798

Variety is the spice of life, somebody nameless once sagely pronounced. And that

somebody might quite easily have been Philip Meyer – who, for two weeks in May

(13th-25th), will be located at The Framers Gallery in London’s Fitzrovia, showing

four dozen paintings that amply demonstrate that oft-quoted aphorism.

With every fresh work, he continues his relentless pursuit of the new. Sometimes swiftly

thrilling, other times painstakingly concentrated, his aim is always to experiment and explore

what might happen next, and see what can be discovered in ‘controlled accidents’. Generally,

he reveals little in the way of explanations; the art, he says, speaks

for itself.

Born in Manhattan, in 1923, his passion for paint came early in life,

veering towards graphic design as a possible career, while training

at New York’s renowned Cooper Union College of Art, The New

School for Design, and Columbia University. After several years as

a successful art director in leading New York advertising agencies,

he chose to spread his wings and speculatively visited London. In

1964, he decided to settle here permanently, building up a specialist art studio, which served

most of the capital’s leading creative agencies and thrived.

Throughout, however, he kept on painting – not with a view to exhibiting or selling, although

he was wont casually to give a friend or family member a much-admired work as a gift, always

firmly refusing payment. That, he would insist, was not the point.

Not until 1988 was he dubiously persuaded to put on his first one-man show in Highgate,

London. It would be almost 20 years before he exhibited again – twice in Suffolk in 2004 and

2008. Admired for their originality and command of colour, his paintings are in many

private collections in the UK, USA, the West Indies, France, Greece, Spain, and South Africa.

And now, in his ninetieth year, the scene is set for another show – in the vibrant heart of

Fitzrovian elegance – with the extraordinary variety that this artist has produced. If variety is

indeed the spice of life, there is surely a wealth of excitement here.