Born in Southport in 1954, Phil Mouldycliff is an accomplished artist and academic whose career spans over five decades.

He began his artistic training as a Graphic Illustrator at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic (1975–78) and furthered his education with a P.G.C.E. at City of Birmingham Polytechnic (1979/80)

For nearly twenty-five years, Phil served as an Art Lecturer at Blackburn College, where he was dedicated to nurturing the creativity and development of emerging artists, many of whom he remains in close contact with to this day. Alongside his teaching career, Phil has been involved in creating large-scale, multi-disciplinary projects for live performance, recording, exhibition, installation, and radio since 1983.

In 2001, after completing his PhD at Liverpool John Moores University, Phil shifted his focus to producing works under the generic title "Conjectured Opera," presenting sound, text, and image as immersive installations. His collaborative spirit led him to work with renowned artists such as Tom Phillips, Bruce McLean, Michael Nyman, Max Eastley, David Cunningham, and Russell Mills. He also released audio works on the ICR label with Keith Rowe, Loren Chasse, and Colin Potter.

Upon retiring from education in 2004, Phil transitioned his practice to a freelance curator role. He produced his first project, "Debris Field," with Sarah Teale at Bolton Museum in 2006. His collaborative efforts continued with Australian artist Dave Carson on audio-visual presentations in the Southern Hemisphere from 2008 to the present.

Never one to be confined by artistic disciplines, Phil has written three novels in the past decade: "There… Because!" (2014), "An Apothecary of Winds" (2019), and "The Rise and Fall of the Balloon Men" (2023), which are currently awaiting publication.


Additionally, he is a founder member of the web-based Avant-Prog band Dead Mountaineers Club and currently collaborates with his son, Jackson Mouldycliff, and long-term partner Colin Potter in the group MPM.

Throughout his career, Phil has worked across numerous creative mediums, including photography, performance, installation, curating, academic and creative writing, and contemporary printmaking, maintaining a versatile and interdisciplinary approach that allows his work to feel surprising and exciting even after over 50 years.