About my Paintings:
People often remark my paintings are a celebration of light and shadow. They're right. Becoming aware of the character of the light that surrounds us is just part of opening up ones senses. It's a way to feel more alive.
When I was very young my eyes were opened to light in an unusual way. My family lived in a deep forest on the shore of Lake Ontario, the northernmost border of the US. As kids we were free to roam far away from our house into unfamiliar parts of the woods. I told my father I worried I might become lost.. He smiled and told me I could find my way back to the our home by studying the sunlight- that we lived so far north the shadows cast by the trees pretty much always pointed north to the Lake. As luck would have it not long after that I did get lost. Following my dad's advice I found my way again.
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. In 2022 the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine will hold an exhibition of his landscapes. 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
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
Black and Decker, Baltimore, MD
Bank of Boston, 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
United States 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
