Philip Ottenbrite was born in Windsor, Ontario. After graduating with a BFA from the University of Windsor he became the assistant director of the Pollock Gallery in Toronto from 1975 until 1978 when he was employed by Mira Godard Gallery, becoming the director in 1983. He left that position in 1989 to direct the Paolo Baldacci Gallery in New York where he became vice president and partner in 1991.

While at Mira Godard Gallery he organized major exhibitions of important artists including Alex Colville, David Milne, Louis de Niverville and Christopher Pratt. He went on to mount critically acclaimed exhibitions of Modern Italian artists de Chirico, Morandi, Fontana and a survey of the Italian Futurists while in New York, along with many well-known contemporary painters. Philip has written on a wide range of artists, from David Milne and Mark Tobey to contemporary artists like Paterson Ewen and Medrie MacPhee.

He is the advisor to the estate of Louis De Niverville and is working on a biography of New York City ball culture legend Angie Xtravaganza.