Phil Epp

Phil Epp was born in York, Nebraska, in 1946 and raised in rural Nebraska on a crop/cattle farm. Phil says he is strongly imprinted into the open spaces of the Great Plains where he was born and have spent most of his life. His paintings reflect this celebration of open sky and landscape, with a hint of human occupation, and he strives to incorporate timeless universal icons into the landscape. A recent trip to the Kazakh Steppe in Central Asia reinforced his efforts at a universal dialog of the sparsely inhabited visual environments. He says his recent works attempt to place emphasis on content and subject over technique and medium, in an effort to better communicate with the viewer.

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 U.S. 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 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 wide-open western vistas.