Philip Braham

Philip Braham is an artist, researcher and lecturer whose longstanding interest in continental aesthetics informs his pedagogical role as Programme Director for Art & Philosophy at DJCAD. His paintings and photographs extend the Northern Romantic tradition in which landscape acts as a metaphor for the human condition. Fidelity to experience is fundamental to his practice, founded on the phenomenological philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Recent projects reflect on the temporal nature of our existence and the fragility and distinctiveness of one’s personal perspective. Phillip Bruno, retired director of Marlborough Gallery New York, described Braham’s recent landscape paintings as possessing a ‘settled serenity’ in their vision, a quality that runs counter to the fashion for anti-aestheticism in visual culture today.

Braham graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 1980, and completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Holland the following year. In 1982 he undertook a further year of research as visiting artist at the University of California at Los Angeles before returning to his native Scotland. In 1989 he joined the illustrious stable of Raab Gallery London/Berlin. His career includes 24 solo exhibitions and several curated group exhibitions of national and international significance, and his artworks are held in public, corporate and private collections worldwide. Among the awards received are the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy Guthrie Award for painting, and the Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award for lens-based work. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, Raab Gallery Berlin, and at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.