{"id":959502,"date":"2026-05-14T14:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959502\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:57:17","slug":"new-exhibition-to-celebrate-birmingham-pop-art-pioneer-peter-phillips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959502\/","title":{"rendered":"New exhibition to celebrate Birmingham pop art pioneer Peter Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"

A free outdoor exhibition is set to honour pioneering Birmingham\u2011born Pop artist Peter Phillips this June.<\/p>\n

Birmingham Colmore, the curators of\u00a0Colmore Life<\/a>, have confirmed details of Pop Goes Brum!, a showcase of striking artworks and photographs celebrating one of the city\u2019s most overlooked creative figures at Snow Hill Square.<\/p>\n

Born in\u00a0Bournville, Phillips studied at the\u00a0Birmingham School of Art on Margaret Street\u00a0<\/b>before becoming a key figure in the international\u00a0Pop\u00a0art movement.<\/p>\n

His career placed him alongside iconic artists including David Hockney, Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, and later Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, cementing his position in the era\u2019s bold, culturally charged art scene.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pop\u00a0Goes\u00a0Brum!\u00a0not only reflects Phillips\u2019 pioneering artistic achievements but also celebrates his deep\u2011rooted connection to Birmingham. Although he lived and worked across\u00a0London, New York, Zurich,\u00a0and Australia\u2019s\u00a0Sunshine Coast,\u00a0his distinct Brummie humour and fascination with industrial and automotive imagery remained central to his work until his passing in\u00a0June 2025, at the age of 86.<\/p>\n

The exhibition<\/a> will also feature\u00a0contemporary works by current Birmingham School of Art students, creating a meaningful link to Phillips\u2019 alma mater, where he both studied and later taught.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Art-O-Matic Riding High, 1973-74 by Peter Phillips<\/p>\n

Curated by art historian and author\u00a0Ruth Millington,<\/b>\u00a0the exhibition will explore Phillips\u2019 immense contribution to the\u00a0Pop\u00a0art movement; a movement defined by bold imagery inspired by consumer culture, mass media, music, advertising, celebrity\u00a0and everyday life.<\/p>\n

Ruth Millington said:\u00a0\u201cI am thrilled to be curating this exhibition, which pays tribute to an overlooked pioneer of\u00a0Pop\u00a0art, Peter Phillips.\u00a0His Birmingham upbringing and art education was an enduring influence on this talented artist who transformed everyday life in the Second City into modern art which still feels fresh and full of energy today.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though Phillips lived and travelled across the world, his Brummie sense of humour never disappeared, nor did the enduring influence of industrial and automotive imagery. He was intensely focused and serious, yet full of wit and sarcasm, deeply introspective, but also someone who enjoyed being seen, as his family remember him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image: Custompainting5: Custom Painting n.5 (1965). Copyright Peter Phillips.<\/p>\n

\t\tTue 9 Jun – Tue 30 Jun, Snow Hill Square, Birmingham\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
Words:<\/dt>\n
Bradley Lengden<\/dd>\n
Published on:<\/dt>\n
Thu 14 May 2026<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A free outdoor exhibition is set to honour pioneering Birmingham\u2011born Pop artist Peter Phillips this June. Birmingham Colmore,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-959502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116573520076193885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}