In her work, Mickey Philips does nothing by the book. She refuses to be held back by conventions and challenges the limits of the materials she works with. Trial and error is key: she prefers to keep experimenting, even if it means things fall apart along the way. A crate with three hundred clay beans? Impossible, she was told—so she made one. Unrestricted by technical conventions, she manipulates materials like clay entirely to her own will, capturing everyday situations in free-spirited objects.
Mickey’s relationship with clay was love at second sight. She studied graphic design at the Utrecht School of the Arts, but made a U-turn six weeks before graduating. Instead of finishing with a graphic design book, she presented an infographic about the crisis in Greece, executed in one hundred cast clay cups. Her graphic background, however, remains deeply embedded in the DNA of her designs.
Mickey Philips, Robby’s drawing, 2024, ceramic and paper, 400 x 400 cm