Philip Koch

About

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. He has had his work featured in seventeen solo museum exhibitions. In 2022 the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine will hold an exhibition of his landscapes. He is an emeritus professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Koch’s grandfather was the inventor of the original Kodachrome color film process. He is the great grandson of the Scottish landscape painter John Wallace. Koch also likes cats.

Koch explains, “People often remark my paintings celebrate light and shadow. This began for me in an unusual way. When I was very young my family lived in a deep forest on the northernmost border of the US. I told my father I worried about getting lost. He smiled and told me I could find my way by studying the sunlight- that we lived so far north the shadows cast by the trees pretty much always pointed north. This worked for me. Now years later the idea that the light keeps us from getting lost seems an apt metaphor for living.”

Solo Museum Exhibitions

2022     Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME

2018      Time Travel in the Burchfield Archives, Burchfield Penny Art Center, Buffalo, NY

2017      Light and Shadow: Paintings and Drawings by Philip Koch from Edward Hopper’s Studio, Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN

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

2003         New England Dreams, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

2002         Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA

2001         Rahr-West Art Museum, Manitowoc, WI

1998         Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA

1995         Butler Institute of American Art, Salem, OH

1994         Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA                   

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2021            Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2017           Two Artist Exhibition, Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, Ellsworth, ME

2015           Philip Koch: Landscapes and Hopper Interiors, Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center, Nyack, NY

2013           Inside Edward Hopper’s World: Paintings by Philip Koch, Isalos Fine Art, Stonington, ME

2012-13     George Billis Gallery, New York, NY

2011           Carbon County Cultural Project, Jim Thorpe, PA

2011           Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

2009           George Billis Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021-22  New Acquisitions and Old Friends, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH

2020        125! Masterworks from the Collection, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA

2018        Hopper’s World: New York, Cape Cod, and Beyond, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA

2017        23 Pairs: Considering Compare and Contrast, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

2017        After Hopper, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

2017       Edward Hopper’s Legacy on Cape Cod, Truro Historical Museum, Truro, MA

Museum Collections

• Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH   
• Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Ft. Dodge, IA
• Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
• Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
• Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
• Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA
• Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN
• Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN
• Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
• 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 Global Campus College Park, MD
• Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
• Wilson College Permanent Collection, Chambersburg, PA

Selected Corporate Collections

• Baltimore Gas and Electric
• Black and Decker, Baltimore, MD
• Bank of Boston, Boston, MA
• Caterpillar, Inc., Peoria, IL
• DuPont Corporation, Wilmington, DE
• Ernst and Whinney,, New York
• Freeport McMoRan, New Orleans, LA
• Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ
• MBNA American, Wilmington, DE
• Mitsui Bank, New York
• Midlantic Bank, New York
• PECO Energy, Philadelphia, PA
• Pepsico, New York
• Russ Reynolds Associates, New York
• Sheppard Pratt Hospital, Baltimore, MD
• Texas Commerce Bank, Houston
• United States Information Agency, Prague
• United States State Department, Washington, DC
• USAA, San Antonio, TX
• Washington Post, Washington, DC

Awards and Honors

1983-2018   Seventeen Residencies in Edward Hopper’s Painting Studio, S. Truro, MA

2015-18            Artist in Residence, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY

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

Teaching Experience

1973-2019    Professor of Fine Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

1972-73         Instructor of Painting, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA

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