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Philip Koch at Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
November 12, 2020
On view through January 17, 2021
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Philip Koch’s studio in Hyperallergic
February 9, 2019
Somerville Manning artist Philip Koch’s workspace is featured in the current installment of the series “A View From the Easel” in Hyperallergic magazine.
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Philip Koch exhibition at Burchfield Penny Art Center
May 8, 2018
The work Burchfield Penney Artist In Residence Philip Koch created over the past 2.5 years will be the subject of an exhibition on view from April 13 – July 29, 2018.
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The tradition of landscape painting is just as vital a branch of the contemporary art world as any other. It is a wild, risk-taking, dangerous and mysterious undertaking. – Philip Koch
Koch is well known for his colorful, panoramic landscapes. Less known is that he was originally an abstract artist. A pivotal event for him was seeing the work of Edward Hopper. It inspired him early in his career to change to painting in a realist direction. Koch has been given unprecedented access to Hopper’s studio on Cape Cod, enjoying 17 residencies there since 1983, an honor granted to no other living American artist.
Sixteen American art museums hold Koch’s work in their permanent collections. From 2015-2018 Koch served as the Artist in Residence at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, NY. He is an emeritus professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Koch is the great grandson of the Scottish landscape painter John Wallace.
Koch explains “My work is based on oil paintings made from direct observation outdoors with my portable French easel instead of using photos as a source. Doing it ‘the old-fashioned way’ seems to open a mysterious door to my deeper creative side. It’s a little ironic since my grandfather John Capstaff was the inventor of the original Kodachrome film process.”
Selected Museum Exhibitions
2014-15 The Mirror of Nature: The Art of Philip Koch, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
2011-12 Unbroken Thread: Nature Paintings and the American Imagination, The Art of Philip Koch, Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI
2011-12 Unbroken Thread, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA
2010 Unbroken Thread, Clymer Museum of Art, Ellensburg, WA
2010 Unbroken Thread, Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN
2009 Unbroken Thread, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2003 New England Dreams, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2002 Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
2001 Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
2001 Rahr-West Art Museum, Manitowoc, WI
1999 Milton Art Museum, Milton, MA
1998 Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA
1996 Saginaw Art Museum, MI
1995 Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
1995 Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
1995 Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN
1995 Butler Institute of American Art, Salem, OH
1994 Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, IA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018 Hopper’s World: New York, Cape Cod and Beyond, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, IA
2018 Meredith Long & Co., Houston, TX
2018 Nichols Gallery, Barboursville, VA
2017 23 Pairs: Considering Compare and Contrast, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
2017 Two Artist Exhibition, Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, Ellsworth, ME
2017 Maine: The Way Life Is, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME
2017 After Hopper, Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA
2016 After Hopper, Cape Cod Museum of Art, MA
2016 Edward Hopper’s Legacy on Cape Cod, Truro Historical Museum, MA
2016 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2015 Philip Koch: Landscapes and Hopper Interiors, Edward Hopper House Art Center, Nyack, NY
2012-13 The Artist’s Compass – Drawings and Paintings by Philip Koch, Friends School of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
2012 Inside Edward Hopper’s Studio: Paintings by Philip Koch, Edward Hopper House Art Center, Nyack, NY
2011 Carbon County Cultural Project, Jim Thorpe, PA
2011 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2009 Unbroken Thread, Hungerford Memorial Gallery, College of Southern Maryland, La Plata, MD
2009 Unbroken Thread, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2008 Unbroken Thread, University of Maryland, University College, College Park, MD (catalogue)
2004 University of Maryland, University College, College Park, MD (catalogue)
2003 University of Wisconsin Parkside, Kenosha, WI (two artist exhibition)
1999 University of Maryland, University College, College Park, MD (catalogue)
1998 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1997 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 American Masters Exhibition, Salmagundi Club of New York, NY
2014 Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE
2013 Miss Florence’s Artist Tree Exhibition, Florence Griswold Art Museum, Old Lyme, CT
2013 Fertile Imagination: Art and Agriculture, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY
2013 Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE
2012 Centennial Juried Exhibition, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
2012 Who We Are: Past and Present, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA
2010 The American Century: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA
2008 A Sense of Place: Landscapes from the Permanent Collection of the Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI
2008 Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE
2007 Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
2007 Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE
2006 Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2005 The Power of Place: The Berkshires, The Berkshires Museum, Pittsfield, MA
2004 New Acquisitions, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2003 Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2003 Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, PA
2001-03 Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
2001-03 Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
2000 Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1993 The League at the Cape, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
Education
1972 MFA in Painting, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
1970 BA in Liberal Arts, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
1968-69 Art Students League of New York, New York, NY
1967 School of Art, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Teaching Experience
1973-present Professor of Fine Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1972-72 Instructor of Painting, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA
Awards and Honors
2018 Residency in Edward Hopper’s Painting Studio, S. Truro, MA (also 2012, 2010, also 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1986, 1984, and 1983)
2018 Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, workshop on drawing
2017 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, speaker on their major John Sloan exhibition
2017 Speaker on Edward Hopper’s Legacy on Cape Cod, Truro, MA
2017 Historical Museum, Truro, MA
2017 Speaker at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
2014 Speaker on Edward Hopper at Norman Rockwell’s Museum, Stockbridge, MA
2007 Panelist on National Conference on Representational Painting, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2006-09 U.S. Art in Embassies Program, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
2001-03 U.S. Art in Embassies Program, Harare, Zimbabwe and Bemako, Mali
Selected Collections
- Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA
- Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
- Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
- Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, IA
- Indiana University Art Museum, IN
- Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
- Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN
- Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN
- Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
- Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI
- Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
- University of Maryland, Maryland Artists Collection, College Park, MD
- Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
- Wilson College Permanent Collection, Chambersburg, PA
- Bank of Boston, Boston, MA
- Black and Decker, Baltimore, MD
- DuPont Corporation, Wilmington, DE
- Freeport McMoran, New Orleans, LA
- Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ
- Midlantic Bank, New York, NY
- PECO Energy, Philadelphia, PA
- Pespsico, New York, NY
- United States Information Agency, Prague
- USAA, San Antonio, TX
- Washington Post, Washington, DC