Phyllis McGowan makes fictionalised autobiographical narratives which think alongside others in a citational practice to draw deeper meaning from domestic detail. She works across forms including film, sound and text in a diaristic style using her own thoughts, and experiences in her practice which draw from her interest and research in writers who are actively questioning the world and her background in community work.
2019-2023, MFA Distinction Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
2014-2018, First Class Honours Degree Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
2008 MA Screenwriting, screen Academy Scotland
Recent Exhibitions
2025 Never Go Out SWG3, Glasgow
2023/25 Putting ourselves in the Picture Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasg
2024 Material Thinking The Lightbox, Woking
2023 New Contemporaries Camden Arts Centre, London
2023 New Contemporaries The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool
2023 MFA show, Florence Street, Glasgow
2022 MFA Interim Show, Florence Street, Glasgow
2020 'Redressing the Balance' , The Lightbox, Woking
2018 'Ingram Contemporary Purchase Prize Finalist Exhibition', Cello Factory, London
2018 'VAS Current' , Tatha Gallery, Tayport
2018 'RSA Open Exhibition', Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2018 'Changing Lenses: Glasgow Stories of Integration', CCA, Glasgow
2018 'Within Half an Inch of a Yard ', Pollok House, Glasgow
2018 'The Big Exhibition: ‘Cycle’ Intersections', GSA Feminist Society, Stereo, Glasgow
2018 'Pubic',Stereo, Glasgow
Awards and Residencies
2023 Longlist Ivan Juritz Prize
2019 Residency Highland Campus, Forres, Glasgow School of Art
2019 Luminate Scotland Professional Development Bursary, Scotland
2019 Aesthetica Art Prize (1st round)
2018 Ingram Contemporary Purchase Prize
Writing
2024 Work on Conversation: A Social Process of Unknowing Yourself in Real Time Glasgow School of Art ‘Dear Christina’ and ‘Dear Kate’
2021 Causeway/Cabhsair Aberdeen University poems 'Dalhousie Street' and 'In Synch'