About my Paintings:

I was outside painting when a young teenager asked me what what the purpose of my paintings was.  It wasn't some sort of  trick question, he really wanted to know.

So often all of us become distracted and a bit disoriented by all the responsibilities and pressures  surrounding us. I find when I can slow down and refocus myself in making a painting a lot of that confusion is brushed away. I think painting becomes a tool to get us back in touch with our senses. It reminds us we can embrace the visual beauty and meaning that's out there.

I'm not sure how I answered that curious teenager. I should have told him was by painting I was making a "First Aid Kit" for the eyes.

Brief Bio:

Koch is well known for his colorful, panoramic landscapes. Less known is that he was originally an abstract artist. A pivotal event for him was seeing the work of Edward Hopper. It inspired him early in his career to change to painting in a realist direction. Koch has been given unprecedented access to Hopper’s studio on Cape Cod, enjoying 17 residencies there since 1983, an honor granted to no other living American artist.

Sixteen American art museums hold Koch’s work in their permanent collections. He has had his work featured in seventeen solo museum exhibitions. He is an emeritus professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Koch’s grandfather was the inventor of the original Kodachrome color film process. He is the great grandson of the Scottish landscape painter John Wallace. Koch also likes cats. 

Resume

Born March 30, 1948

Solo Museum Exhibitions

2022                            Ogunquit Museum of American Art, ME

2018                            Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY

2017                            Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN (also 2001 & 1995))

2014-15                       Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD (also       

                                       1995)

2011-12                      Saginaw Art Museum, MI (also 1996)

                                   Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA

2010                           Clymer Museum of Art, Ellensburg, WA

                                   Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN (also 1995)

2009                           Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA (also 2003)

2002                           Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin and Marshall College

                                      Lancaster, PA (two artist exhibition)

                                   Rahr-West Art Museum, Manitowoc, WI (catalogue)

1998                           Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA (catalogue)

1995                           Butler Institute of American Art, Salem, OH

1994                           Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2021                            Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2017                            Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, Ellsworth, ME (two artis exhibition)

2015                            Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center, Nyack, NY

                                       (also 2012)

2013                            Inside Edward Hopper’s World: Paintings by Philip Koch, Isalos        

                                        Fine Art, Stonington, ME

2012-13                       George Billis Gallery, New York (also 2009)

2011                            Carbon County Cultural Project, Jim Thorpe, PA

                                    Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore 
2008                            U. of MD Global Campus, College Park, MD, catalogue

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021-22                       New Acquisitions and Old Friends, Allen Memorial Art
                                Museum, Oberlin, OH      

2020                            125! Masterworks from the Collection,  Cedar Rapids

                                       Museum of Art, IA

2018                            Hopper’s World: New York, Cape Cod and Beyond, Cedar
                                        Rapids Museum of Art, IA

2017                            23 Pairs: Considering Compare and Contrast, Arnot Art Museum

                                       Elmira, NY

                                    After Hopper, Cape Cod Museum of Art

                                    Edward Hopper’s Legacy on Cape Cod, Truro Historical 

                                        Museum

Awards and Honors

1983- 2018                  Seventeen Residencies in Edward Hopper’s Painting
                                       Studio, S. Truro,  MA
                                         
2015-18                       Artist in Residence, Burchfield Penney Art Center,
                                       Buffalo, NY

Bibliography

2022                            Fine Art Connoisseur,  article on Ogunquit Museum of American
                                       Art exhibition Philip Koch: Isle of Dreams, May issue 
                           
2021                            Fine Art Connoisseur , feature on Somerville
                                       Manning Galler solo exhibition, March issue

2019                             Hyperallergic  magazine, A View from the Studio

Museum Collections

                                    Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH   

                                    Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Ft. Dodge, IA
                                    
                                    Burchfield Penney art Center, Buffalo, NY

                                    Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

                                    Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

                                    Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA

                                    Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN

                                    Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN

                                    Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY

                                    Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

                                    Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA

                                    Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI

                                    Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN

                                    University of Maryland Global Campus College Park, MD, 

                                    Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown,
                                       MD

                                    Wilson College Permanent Collection, Chambersburg, PA

Selected Corporate Collections

                                 
                                   Baltimore Gas and Electric, MD

                                   Black and Decker, Baltimore, MD
                                    
                                   Bank of Boston, MA 

                                   Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL

                                   DuPont Corporation, Wilmington, DE
                                    
                                   Ernst and Whinney, New York

                                   Freeport McMoRan, New Orleans, LA

                                   Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ

                                   MBNA American, Wilmington, DE

                                   Mitsui Bank, New York

                                   Midlantic Bank, New York

                                   PECO Energy, Philadelphia, PA

                                   Pepsico, New York

                                   Russ Reynolds Associates, New York

                                   Sheppard Pratt Hospital, Baltimore

                                   Texas Commerce Bank, Houston

                                   United States Information Agency, Prague

                                   US State Department, Washington, DC

                                   USAA, San Antonio, TX

                                   Washington Post, Washington, DC


                                                            

Teaching

1973- 2019                 Professor of Fine Art, Maryland Institute College of Art

                                       Baltimore, MD

1972-73                      Instructor of Painting, Central Washington University

                                      Ellensburg, WA