The drawings of Philip Carpenter, at once mundane and compelling, are distilled portraits of ordinary things. In Primary Color, Philip Carpenter builds on a recent body of work – previewed as a part of his solo exhibition, Work and Play, at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport earlier this year – that stands as a stunning shift from the worn and aged, archetypal-seeming hand-tools and work objects for which he is known, to a focus on the energy and electricity of the molded-plastic toys and brightly-colored tchochkes that surround us. In a manner that, in the words of MOCA-GA co-founder and director Annette Cone-Skelton, “can only be described as more than or beyond realism,” Carpenter achieves the frenetic energy and exaggerated emotions that radiate from these figures, and realizes, as always, the life contained within them.

Philip Carpenter has exhibited throughout the southeast since 1975. His most recent exhibition was at Atlanta’s Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport January–March 2005. Carpenter’s works are in many public and corporate collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, King & Spalding, and Auburn University. Carpenter has received fellowships from The Hambidge Center and The National Endowment for the Arts, among others.