PHILLIP DEWEY Fine Art and Furniture
Phillip Dewey studied painting and sculpture at Wabash College (BA) with Greg Huebner and Doug Calisch and painting at Brooklyn College (MFA) with Allan D'Arcangelo, Lee Bontecou and William T. Williams. His woodworking education started in early childhood, working aside his father, Thomas Dewey, in his cabinetmaking shop in northern Pennsylvania.
After receiving his MFA, Phil began work as a full-time art teacher in the NYC Public Schools. He continued to paint and exhibit his work, shifting in the mid 1990's to a focus on Negro Leagues baseball players, blending the fond memories of the childhood game he played with his deepening immersion into Black and Hispanic urban cultures.This focus eventually broadened to paintings of MLB ballplayers, whereby subjects were chosen and a visual story was created around the portrait.
When Phil moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the early 2000's, he was able to set up a larger studio and a full-scale wood shop. These parallel pursuits often combined, such that many of the paintings incorporate woodworking as part of a multi-media presentation. The furniture and custom built-ins are creative works unto themselves. Phil works largely in the idiom of Shaker and Arts & Crafts styles, but often blends in contemporary design aspects or divergent wood species selections to make a more unique product. In the end, whether it comes out of the shop or studio, the signifying griffen trademark indicates the assurance of creative quality.
"One may ask what do art, baseball and woodworking have in common? For me the answer is: everything. These have all been linear and connected interests throughout the course of my life, manifesting in the creative work you see on this site - sometimes cross pollinating one another, other times standing alone. The shop skills that enable me to make furniture based on classic American styles allows me to enhance many of my paintings to lead the viewer to new places of interest. Craft and creativity combine to make the familiar unique."
Phil Dewey, 2026
CV
Biography
1989 B.A., Art, Magna Cum Laude, Wabash College, IN
1991 M.F.A., Painting, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
1992-2011 High school art instructor - NYC, New Jersey, Michigan
2001-2003 Adjunct Professor of Art, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ
2010-present Freelance artist.
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Baseball Heritage Museum, Cleveland, OH
2015 Mott Community College, The Soul of Baseball: Portraits of Negro Leaguers, Flint, MI
2015 Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, Birmingham, AL
2015 Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, Detroit, MI
2006 LCVA Gallery, Adrian, MI
2000 Laguardia Community College, New York,NY
1999 Seventh and Second Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Gallery X, New York, NY
1999 Department of Housing Preservation and Development, New York, NY
1999 Fleet Bank, 149th Street and 2nd Avenue Branches, New York, NY
1998 Fleet Bank, Park Avenue and Soho Branches, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
2020 Separate and Unequalled: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
2020 Home Base: A History of New York City's Love Affair with Baseball, Queens College, NYC
2019 Seeing White: Unraveling Racism, 22 North Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI
2019 Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Stars and the Negro Leagues, Detroit, MI
2018 The Art and History of the Negro Leagues, SBY Art Space, Salisbury, MD
2016 Safe At Home, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2015 Washington Street Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
2014 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference Exhibit, Detroit, MI (Juried: 1st Place)
2014 The All-Stars of Baseball Art, Mason Civic League, Hoboken, NJ
2013 Baseball As Art: A Negro Leagues Retrospective, Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC
2012 ArtPrize 2012, Women's City Club (venue), Grand Rapids, MI
2012 90th Annual Ann Arbor Art Center All-Media Exhibit, Ann Arbor, MI
2012 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference Exhibit, Cleveland, OH (Juried: Honorable Mention)
2012 The Art of Baseball, 15th Annual Exhibition, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN
2010 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference Exhibit, Birmingham, AL (Juried: 1st Place)
2007 Detroit Artists Market, Baseball As Art, Detroit, MI (Juried: Honorable Mention)
2007 George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Michigan Art Education Assoc., East Lansing, MI
2006 Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI 2006 Riverside Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI
2004 George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003 George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2001 Kearon-Hempenstall Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2000 Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Kansas City, MO
1998 Sotheby's Auction House, New York, NY
1997 Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN
1997 Rocky H. Aoki Foundation House, New York, NY
1994 Sotheby's Auction House, New York, NY
1993 OIA Salon, New York, NY
1993 Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN
1992 Herron Test-Site Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1991 Westbeth Gallery I, New York, NY
Collections
Mott Community College, Flint, MI
National Pastime Museum, San Francisco, CA
Negro Southern League Museum, Birmingham, AL
San Francisco Giants, San Francisco, CA
Fleet Bank, NYC