Joel Phillips: No Regrets In Life

May 11 – June 30, 2012
Opens May 11, 7-10pm

S A T E L L I T E 6 6 
66 6th Street
SF, CA 94107

“No Regrets in Life” opens May 11, and is the first solo exhibition of San Francisco-based artist Joel Daniel Phillips. “No Regrets In Life” examines the people that the artists encounters on a daily basis, through larger-than-life-sized renderings of individuals from his own corner at 6th and Mission. These meticulous drawings- of people most often overlooked and anonymous- frame our contradictory reaction toward the spectacle of indigence. Our voyeuristic tendencies are completely at odds with the usual behavior, which is to frequently ignore what is seen, and keep walking.

In these portraits, the subjects cease to be dark matter in our communal space and instead are revealed to be the main characters in their own narrative. “No Regrets In Life” is a visual record of the artist’s striving to recognize unknown and unacknowledged individuals through the tip of his pencil. Rendered in stark chiaroscuro, these figures are emphatically spotlighted as individuals through Philips’ meticulous application of charcoal and graphite. The anonymous becomes celebrity, at least for a moment.

Joel Phillips received his BA in Fine Arts with a Graphics emphasis from Westmont College, Santa Barbara in 2011. He has exhibited in numerous group shows both in California and New York, where he attended the New York Center for Art and Media Studies in 2009.

Satellite66 is the newest gallery in San Francisco’s Central Market District, seeking to enrich the neighborhood with regular art exhibitions, and dedicated to showcasing emerging contemporary artists with a focus on craftsmanship, concept, and aesthetic. FOR GALLANTRY.