Artist Spotlight
Graham Pfeil
Graham is an illustrator and muralist based in Philadelphia. Taking inspiration from nature and community events, he blends traditional and digital methods to capture the beauty of the natural world in his own unique style
.
Style-wise, a large part of my journey as an artist was thinking I needed to have a specific style. At Ministry of Awe (MoA), I’m trying to expand on my past style, which focused on linework and digital illustration.The work I want to do now is different. It’s painting with perspective, distortion in a way, and has a field of view.
Now I want to see where I can push my style, building off what I’ve learned in the past. My goal is to experiment with different media, finding interesting ways to incorporate perspective and depth in future works.
When UArts shut down, I lost my community. Through a chance and a miracle, Meg found my portfolio and I started doing work for the Ministry. Once I started working here, I really understood the importance of a community of artists for a city and having people around you who want to push you and see you evolve. It makes me want to paint, sculpt, and try all these different things.
At MoA, I started with assistant painting. It got me into physical painting, outside of digital work, which I had dreamed about in school and now want to bring into my projects.
I want people to go to MoA and try to understand the things that are happening in the world that affect us in a deeper way. Not just living with it, but understanding the themes that are present: surveillance, value, exchange, etc. It’s important to be aware and to start a conversation - that’s what MoA is about.
To me, “awe” gives you a deeper insight into how you think about a past experience, usually accompanied by a feeling of gratitude.
Walking into the MoA building for the first time gave me a sense of awe. I was so nervous to see Meg but walking through the doors and feeling the atmosphere was an awe moment and I think visitors will feel that.
