Jeff Phillips and Swansea MAD

Over the last two years, Swansea MAD has developed a flourishing relationship with a local artist, Jeff Phillips. Jeff is a Swansea based artist and illustrator with over thirty-five years of experience. He is driven by storytelling and his work is heavily inspired by his Welsh heritage and surroundings, in particular Swansea, which has resulted in some beautiful art collections.

We are thrilled to say that Jeff has kindly donated 30 paintings from his Swansea Past, Present, Future collection to us at Swansea MAD. This donation means that we will be able to fund another round of the Jeff Phillips Art Scholarship, a successful scheme set out to support a young local artist, by selling prints of Jeff’s work. The Swansea Past, Present, Future collection has been exhibited most recently at Swansea’s Volcano Theatre with an extremely positive reception from the local community.  

You can visit Jeff’s website here: https://www.swanseapastpresentfuture.com/ // https://artistjeffphillips.webs.com/  

Virtual Gallery

Last year, Swansea MAD began a collaboration project with Jeff Phillips to develop a Virtual Gallery of his artwork, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund Wales. In February 2021, Swansea MAD launched The Virtual Gallery, which featured 16 paintings of the Copperworks and Swansea’s industrial heritage, overviews of the paintings and an audio/visual tour by the artist. The idea was to allow members of the community to visit the virtual gallery and share their own stories and interpretations of the Copperworks, widen access to art and heritage during COVID-19 restrictions and create a legacy. 

You can visit the Virtual Gallery here: https://swanseamad.com/sppf/

Also, as part of the legacy, Ollie Pfeifer, a local artist, also created a video tutorial to enable people to create artwork inspired by the Copperworks: https://fb.watch/4ZaFf105cq/ 

Support for Young Artists

At the same time as the launch of the Virtual Gallery, Ollie Pfeifer, a local artist was the recipient of the inaugural Jeff Phillips Arts Scholarship, sponsored by local businesses Viscose Closures. Ollie received a grant for development and mentoring from local artist Jeff Phillips, including working on several joint projects. 

‘From the first moment of meeting Swansea MAD, it has only been continuous support in helping boost my business – Yimkoo. Swansea MAD constantly reaches out, offering brilliant opportunities that have 100% extended my abilities and confidence as an artist and producer. A meeting with Artes Mundi was set up, offering insights on directions I could take as an artist in the world today, alongside free training on Photography and business skills.’

– Ollie Pfeifer 

Visit Ollie’s website at https://www.yimkoo.com/  

If you would be interested in supporting young artists at Swansea MAD by sponsoring the Jeff Phillips Arts Scholarship, please contact Geraint Turner on geraint@madswansea.com