Phil Epp was born in York, Nebraska in 1946 and raised in rural Nebraska on a crop/cattle farm. Phil was awarded the Kansas Governors Artist award in 1985. His paintings have been shown at Galleries in New Mexico, Chicago, Kansas City and New York. Numerous monumental public works have been awarded honors including “8 wonders of Kansas Art” in 2009 and ”Water Tower of the Year” in 2010. In 2009, Phil was selected as a U.S. cultural ambassador to Kazakhstan with the Department of States’ “Art in Embassies” program. His work has been displayed in American Embassies in Latvia, Africa and Fiji. In 2010 he received the Best of Show award at the Panhandle Plains Invitational in Canyon, Texas. He recently completed three large paintings for Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs. His recent induction into the Cowboy Artists of America is a monumental yet humbling honor and challenge. The wide open spaces and the horses, cowboys, Native Americans and prairie creatures that inhabit this empty landscape have been a lifelong passion. Epp’s studio is based in Kansas and he continues to travel, photograph and paint the wide-open western vistas.
Artist Statement: “I am strongly imprinted into the open spaces of the Great Plains where I was born and have spent most of my life. My paintings reflect this celebration of open sky and landscape, with a hint of human occupation. My intention is to engage the viewer in this isolation, but not dictate response. I strive to incorporate timeless universal icons into the landscape. A recent trip to the Kazakh Steppe in Central Asia reinforced my efforts at a universal dialog of the sparsely inhabited visual environments. Recent attempts place emphasis on content and subject over technique and medium, in an effort to better communicate with the viewer.”
