Phil Hale was born in 1963 and raised in Kenya and Massachusetts. He was apprenticed to painter Rick Berry when he was sixteen, and moved to London when he was twenty-one. His early career is strongly associated with the books he illustrated for Stephen King. In the 90s he produced work for Warner Bros, Playboy, DC, Sony, Penguin and others. By 1999 he had transitioned to portraiture, and commissions included Muttiah Muralitharan for Lords Cricket Grounds (MCC), Thomas Ades of the National Portrait Gallery, and Tony Blair's official portrait for the Houses of Westminster. His fine art has been show throughout Europe and the US at numerous galleries and institutions. His most recent show was Life Wants to Live at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. Published collections of his work included Mockingbirds / Relaxeder, Urge Ourselves Under, Record Separator, Empire, and Black Crack.
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