He curated the 1995 exhibition "Africa: the Art of a Continent" for the Royal Academy and became their Chairman of Exhibitions. Phillips began to move into new areas in the mid-1990s: stage design, "The Postcard Century" for Thames & Hudson (building on his passion for postcards), quilting, mud drawings and wire structures. All his old projects continued and he began illustrating "Ulysses". He also translated the libretto of "Otello" while he was designing the English National Opera production. In 1998 Largo Records released "Six of Hearts", a CD of Phillips' songs and other music written since 1992 but this went out of print when the label failed in 2002.