Phil Page graduated in architecture from the University of Newcastle NSW with the university medal and Master of Architecture. His professional career was initially in Sydney and later in Canberra. Many of his projects were overseas, including several of Australia’s pavilions at world expositions. In Australia his work included the first development strategy master planning for the Australian War Memorial for the NCDC and several major planning and design studies for the Department of Defence in Canberra and elsewhere. In 1992 Phil became one of the founding principals in BVN Architecture. His diverse range of projects there included the design of Buildings R1 and R2 at Russell for the Department of Defence, major heritage conservation works at the Australian War Memorial, design of the initial National Portrait Gallery in Old Parliament House. In 2006, his RAAF Richmond 36/37 Squadron HQ was awarded the RAIA Sulman Medal and Environment Awards. Phil left BVN in 2007 after several years as National Director, to pursue a long interest in painting.
His subsequent studies at the Painting Workshop at the ANU School of Art and Design led to the award of a Graduate Diploma in 2011 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2019. He has been a Studio Artist at M16 Artspace since 2017. His paintings explore ways of incorporating layers of imagery of intangible and non-visible information to portray the urban pattern where history acts like a pictorial generator affecting compositional issues. The works contain layers made from drawn and painted lines and areas of colour, often figurative but also frequently abstracted from the patterns of the urban environment, sketchbook images and memory. Many of these memory images result from his previous architectural practice.
Working on paper, board or canvas his current works continue on this trajectory interrogating the boundary between drawing and painting in imagery of the built environment. These works show what he remembers about cities and the process of making them.
Phil Page, Paris Aerial 2, 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 125 cm. Photo courtesy of David Patterson.
