During the 90’s Phil Frost devised an immediately recognisable art on the streets of New York, covering walls and scrapped materials – old doors, tables and objets trouvés – with a white texture that fuses primitivism, graffiti, street art and graphic design. Following this trace of extraordinary visual impact, which recalls Australian and Hawaiian pictorial languages, the book Frost reconstructs the evolution of a graphic cipher rich in abbreviations, symbols and stylised logos that give this self taught artist’s works the primordial character of tribal articles. If it is true, as Phil Frost believes, “that within every person there is an indigenous expression of themselves,” his artistic action consists of “tattooing” the greatest possible number of surfaces, be they an old baseball bat or a girl’s skin. After working extensively on the streets, gaining fame among the musical community and skateboarders, Frost’s popularity was confirmed in 1995 when PBS did a documentary about him. This won him admission to the gallery and museum circuit.
Born in Jamestown (NY) in 1973, Phil Frost has held several solo exhibitions including at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia (2002) and the Spiral Museum Cultural Center in Tokyo (2001). Through the collective exhibition Beautiful Losers his works have been seen all over the world. He currently lives and works in New York.