Phlegm is a Welsh-born

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

-based

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

ist and artist who first developed his illustrations in

self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...

comics. The name 'Phlegm' came from one of the four temperaments in ancient Greek medicine: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.

Phlegm Phlegm (; , ''phlégma'', "inflammation", "humour caused by heat") is mucus produced by the respiratory system, excluding that produced by the nasal passages. It often refers to respiratory mucus expelled by coughing, otherwise known as sputum ...

was believed to be responsible for an apathetic and unemotional

temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...

Overview

Phlegm's work features in the urban landscape, and can mostly be seen in run-down and disused spaces. Phlegm creates

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

illustrations to an untold story, weaving a

visual narrative A visual narrative (also visual storytelling) is a story told primarily through the use of visual media. The story may be told using still photography, illustration, or video, and can be enhanced with graphics, music, voice and other audio. Overv ...

that explores the unreal through creatures from his imagination. Phlegm's storybook-like imagery is half childlike, half menacing, set in built up

Cityscape In the visual arts, a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, Publishing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape. ''Town ...

s with castles, turrets and winding stairways. At other times the city itself is the setting for his long limbed half-human, half-

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

creatures. In this dream world a viewer comes across impossible flying machines and complex networks of levers, pulleys and cogs, set beside telescopes, magnifying glasses and zephyrs. Working mostly in

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

, his fine technique and intricate detail can be seen as a curiosity cabinet of the mind. Each drawing forms part of a grand narrative that extends worldwide, in countries including Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, USA, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and Australia. His work has also appeared in a variety of objects such as airplanes, boats, buildings, vehicles and many street art festivals.

Exhibitions

Phlegm's first solo show ''The Bestiary'' took place at the Howard Griffin Gallery on

Shoreditch High Street Shoreditch High Street is the old main street of Shoreditch, London. It is part of the A10 road and connects Norton Folgate to the south with Kingsland Road to the north. It constitutes a segment of the Roman Ermine Street, which ran directly ...

, London from 1 February to 25 March 2014. In April 2019 he hosted 'Mausoleum of the Giants' in Sheffield, attracting over 12,000 visitors.

Murals

In January 2013, Phlegm painted on the Village Underground wall in London, UK. In February 2014, Phlegm teamed up with RUN and Christiaan Nagel on a mission to give final moments of vivacious life to yet another to be demolished building in London – the Blithehale Medical Centre in

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...

. In April and May 2014, Phlegm was one of several overseas artists to paint a series of murals in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand as part of that city's

Urban art Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

festival. Other artists involved included Italy's

Pixel Pancho In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sm ...

and Poland's

Natalia Rak Natalia Rak (or just Rak; born 1986) is a Polish people, Polish street artist. She uses brightly colored paint to do multistory murals on the sides of buildings around Poland and Internationally. Originally painting canvases, she switched to street ...

. Phlegm was one of around 150 artists to paint murals in the

Djerbahood Djerbahood was a street art event in which artists from all over the world gathered in the village of Erriadh on the Tunisian island Djerba to create 250 mural paintings. The project was established by the ''Itinerrance de Paris'' gallery in Ju ...

Project in Erriadh,

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, in the summer of 2014. In August 2016, Phlegm painted what was billed as the world's tallest mural to that time (8 storeys) in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

at 1 St. Clair West. Toronto resident Stephanie Bellefleur was his assistant.

References

External links

Phlegm official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phlegm Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from Sheffield Street artists Welsh illustrators