New exhibition to celebrate Birmingham pop art pioneer Peter Phillips

A free outdoor exhibition is set to honour pioneering Birmingham‑born Pop artist Peter Phillips this June.

Birmingham Colmore, the curators of Colmore Life, have confirmed details of Pop Goes Brum!, a showcase of striking artworks and photographs celebrating one of the city’s most overlooked creative figures at Snow Hill Square.

Born in Bournville, Phillips studied at the Birmingham School of Art on Margaret Street before becoming a key figure in the international Pop art movement.

His career placed him alongside iconic artists including David Hockney, Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, and later Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, cementing his position in the era’s bold, culturally charged art scene.

Pop Goes Brum! not only reflects Phillips’ pioneering artistic achievements but also celebrates his deep‑rooted connection to Birmingham. Although he lived and worked across London, New York, Zurich, and Australia’s Sunshine Coast, his distinct Brummie humour and fascination with industrial and automotive imagery remained central to his work until his passing in June 2025, at the age of 86.

The exhibition will also feature contemporary works by current Birmingham School of Art students, creating a meaningful link to Phillips’ alma mater, where he both studied and later taught.

Art-O-Matic Riding High, 1973-74 by Peter Phillips

Curated by art historian and author Ruth Millington, the exhibition will explore Phillips’ immense contribution to the Pop art movement; a movement defined by bold imagery inspired by consumer culture, mass media, music, advertising, celebrity and everyday life.

Ruth Millington said: “I am thrilled to be curating this exhibition, which pays tribute to an overlooked pioneer of Pop art, Peter Phillips. His Birmingham upbringing and art education was an enduring influence on this talented artist who transformed everyday life in the Second City into modern art which still feels fresh and full of energy today.

“Even though Phillips lived and travelled across the world, his Brummie sense of humour never disappeared, nor did the enduring influence of industrial and automotive imagery. He was intensely focused and serious, yet full of wit and sarcasm, deeply introspective, but also someone who enjoyed being seen, as his family remember him.”

Featured image: Custompainting5: Custom Painting n.5 (1965). Copyright Peter Phillips.