Hubert Phipps is an American sculptor and painter known for his paint pigment drawings and abstract sculptures. Phipps experiments with various forms and materials, including steel, bronze, wood, composites, plaster, glass and marble. Phipps’ art is strongly influenced by his life experiences with art, flying, racing and animation.
Phipps started drawing at an early age. He developed skills as an illustrator, initially transcribing political cartoons. While attending Deerfield Academy, Phipps discovered a passion for flying, something that he would continue throughout life. Since the age of 16, he has logged more than 4,000 hours as a pilot-in-command in both rotorcraft and fixed wing.
He was part of the Art Students League of New York at the age of 17 and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute before pursuing a career as a professional racecar driver.
“It’s not just the performance and artful designs that capture my imagination, but the freedom that cars provide,” Phipps said. “I wanted to get out and see the world and wanted to do that in a car. I attended the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1979 and watched the Porsche 935 Twin Turbos going by at 220 mph before braking for turn one and 2 foot flames coming out the tailpipes. That experience was transformative and inspired me to race.”
From 1979 to 1985, Phipps gave solid performances in racecar driving, including winning the SCCA Formula Atlantic National championship, driving a Ralt RT4 powered by Ford. He won the Formula Atlantic Professional series at Willow Springs, California in 1984 and again in 1985.
After retiring as a professional driver, Phipps turned his focus to art once again. In 2001, he enrolled in the International Fine Arts College in Miami to study computer animation, with additional training at Escape Studios in London.
Phipps’ interest in animation was specific to learning how to model forms in the computer as reference for sculpting objects, using traditional media. In 2002, Phipps participated in Graham Nixon’s drawing marathon at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, which opened his ability to work in large-scale.
A significant influence on Phipps’ work comes from the view he gets while piloting his aircraft. He amasses photographic images on these trips that are often used as reference for sculpture, paintings and drawings. Overall, Phipps finds inspiration from in the natural and cultivated world.
“At times I do not know where that inspiration might come from at any given moment,” Phipps said. “In a broad sense, I consider the source to be the natural world with its living creatures, sky, mountains, trees, ocean and the heavens. I am a scuba diver and the amazing coral formations underwater inspire me. The view of earth from aircraft with its strange patterns and surprising scale also comes to mind. Just as important are the works of other artists. Visiting the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado was incredibly impactful. I remember ‘Wonder,’ an exhibition of works by nine major contemporary artists at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2015, as about as inspiring as anything I’ve experienced in the art world.”
His works are featured in the permanent collections of major museums, institutions and private collectors, including Tufts University Art Galleries, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Harn Museum of Art, Georgia Museum of Art, Coral Springs Museum of Art and the Flint Institute of Arts, which recently selected Paradise, the monumental bronze sculpture by Phipps, where the 1.5 ton, 9-foot-tall work is currently on view.
Phipps’ monumental sculpture “Rocket” was also recently selected for an art in public places initiative in Palm Beach County, spearheaded by the Boca Raton Museum of Art. “Rocket” is valued at $1.5 million, stands 30-feet tall, weighs 9.8 tons and took more than 2,200 square feet of stainless steel to construct.
Phipps’ latest exhibition in collaboration with luxury Italian coachbuilder Ares Modena was made to debut the first Ares Modena showroom in North America, in the Miami Design District. It features several works born out of the artist’s love for acceleration and for aerodynamic forms.
“We chose these bold sculptures and artworks by Hubert Phipps to debut our first U.S. showroom and to surround the Ares S1 supercar model for its North American premiere, because when experienced together, they create a powerful fusion that supercharges the imagination,” explained Mo Elarishy of Ares Miami.
“I am honored to have been invited by Ares Miami to present this collaboration,” Phipps explained. “Ares is one of the world’s leading studios of high-performance design and stellar engineering, and this collaboration is igniting new inspirations in my artmaking.”
These sculptures and artworks by Phipps rev up the space in the Ares Miami showroom, apace with the supercar’s electrifying spirit: Sky Temple, Voyager, Arch, Lava Flow, Africa 1 and Africa 2, plus a maquette-sized version of Rocket from the private collection of real estate magnate Lawrence Moens.
“The sculptures start out as drawings, and then I make a 3D model out clay or plaster,” Phipps said. “Some of these I scan with a 3D scanner and are refined and scaled in the computer. A pattern is then cut with a CNC milling machine. From the pattern a mold is made and from that the casting process begins at the foundry. There are a lot of steps to this process. The exception to this is the two sculptures entitled Africa 1 and Africa 2. They start as a drawing, but they are cut outs from steel plates, using a plasma cutter. These two and Lava Flow are finished using chemicals to create their particular patinas. The process for each sculpture can take up to six months.”
The exhibition also features Phipps’ signature paint pigment drawings: Momentum, Current, Impulse and Rhythm.
“The process for the pigment drawings starts with covering the paper completely with the pigment,” Phipps said. “Then, in the darkness of night, I get down on my hands and knees and start making long strokes with erasers. After about 30 minutes or so, I turn on the lights to see what I’ve done. I then continue working with the erasers, using different motions, sometime jabbing and slashing type of strokes contravening the initial long strokes. It is a physical performance as much as mental one. I also use a Shark Rocket vacuum cleaner, which has similar but different effect than the erasers. The drawing is completed in about four hours. This process drains me, and I don’t go back to try a new one right away. I’ve never managed to make more than about 2 in a month.”
The exhibition debuted during the week of Art Basel in Miami, considered the “Super Bowl of the art world.”
“Hubert Phipps’ racing background and his passion for automobiles shine through in the kinetic energy of his sculptures,” said Mo Elarishy of Ares Miami.
