Phyllis Green

Artist’s Statement

My sculpture is concerned with the personal, cultural and political. Though I have worked in video, installation and performance, I am primarily an object maker. The objects I make are sites for rituals of discovery, guided by my interests in the areas of craft, the body and the feminine. They exist as garments, performance props, and objects of contemplation and serve to contrast the world of consumerism with the immaterial world of belief.

My recent work is inspired by my reading of the Upanishads, the ancient texts of India that reveal the nature of reality and the means by which individuals can achieve enlightenment. The first group, exhibited in 2015, is an interpretation of the decree that a spiritual aspirant approach a learned teacher carrying wood on their head as a first step. These sculptures are mixed media carriers, scaled to my body, and fashioned from natural materials (wood, clay, feathers, fiber) by laborious hand processes (sewing, carving, modeling and various techniques of metal working). The second group, exhibited in 2017, also includes transportation devices inspired by Vedic parables. All are infused by an awareness of the challenge that such spiritual aspirations impose in this turbulent, material culture, and by the humor and whimsy that are required, in part, to navigate it. Through them, I propose that we change our lives by re-focusing: by calming our minds and enjoying moments of introspection.

Website: phyllisgreen.net

Biography

Select Solo Exhibitions from 2011-2017

2017
Life After Life After Life, Chimento Contemporary, Los Angeles

2015
Walking the Walk, LAM Gallery, Los Angeles

2013
Phyllis Green, Works Sited, Central Library, Los Angeles

2011
Splendid Entities: 25 Years of Objects by Phyllis Green, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles

Select Group Exhibitions from 2011-2017

2017
Conduction, Fellows of Contemporary Art Gallery, Los Angeles

2017
Material Matters, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles

2014
2014 Scripps 70th Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, California

2012
Winter Kept Us Warm, Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Select Community-based Art Projects

2015
Artist Honoree, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles

2004-2006
Chair, Arts Commission, City of Santa Monica, California

1995-97
Hollywood Fences Project, MTA A-R-T Program

1994
Montebello/Commerce Metrolink Station

Select Fellowships and Awards

2016
Senior Artist Fellowship, City of Santa Monica, California

2014
Fellowship in Fine Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York

1996
Artist Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York

1984-85
Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts (Sculpture)

Education

Master of Fine Arts, 1981
University of California, Los Angeles,

Bachelor of Arts, 1972
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada