Phyllis Green

Early life and career

Although Green was born in Minneapolis, she grew up in Winnipeg and attended the University of Manitoba, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1971. Her crocheted Boob Tree (1975) was the catalog-cover and poster image for "Woman as Viewer," an all-women artists exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Thirty-six years later, she restored Boob Tree for "Winter Kept Us Warm" (2012) at Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In 1978, she moved to California to pursue graduate studies in art and was awarded an MFA from the University of California Los Angeles in 1981. Her practice has consistently integrated feminist politics and classic modernist themes.

Career Survey (2011)

In 2011, Green's survey "Splendid Entities: 25 Years of Objects by Phyllis Green" opened at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.

The body of work for which Green has received the most recognition is known as the "Turkish Bath" (1994) series, which was inspired by a late Jean-August Dominique Ingres painting of the same name. Art historian Jeanne Willette contrasts both artists efforts, "Pink and nude female slaves loll indolently, smile demurely, and are displayed for the pleasure of the male viewer. This overabundance of available female flesh is one of the more compelling images of the conspicuous consumption of human beings from the previous century. For the feminist Green, the idea of woman-as-commodity at the mercy of the male consumer is demeaning. In response, the artist sought to redeem femininity by addressing issues of decoration and ornament in her own version of Ingre's The Turkish Bath."

Solo exhibitions

Green has had solo exhibitions at numerous commercial galleries, including Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (2003), Lemon Sky Projects (1998), LASCA Gallery (1996) and Jan Baum Gallery (1988, 1990, 1993 and 1994), as well as university galleries tied to Long Beach City College (1988 and 2009), Rio Hondo College (1995), Cal-State Bakersfield (1994), Pierce College (1991), Whittier College (1987) among others.

Group exhibitions

In addition to being included in Los Angeles County Art Museum's "Made in California: Art, Image and Identity" (2000), Green's sculptures have been featured in national exhibitions at Long Beach Museum of Art, Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Getty Center, Mulvane Museum of Art (Topeka), Tucson Museum of Art, Laguna Museum of Art, ASU Art Museum, UCLA/Hammer Museum, as well as international exhibitions in Berlin, Venice, Bohemia, Shanghai and Glasgow.

Teaching, Curating, Radio

A Co-Director of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation in Santa Monica, Green has taught at University of Southern California's Roski School of Art and Design since 2002. From 1996 to 2008, she taught at the University of California Los Angeles and from 1989 to 2011, she taught in the Art Department of Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. In 2003, she was a visiting artist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She also taught at California State University-Fullerton in 1998, Glendale Community College in 1992, Claremont Graduate University in 1990 and Emily Carr College of Art from 1982 to 1983.

From 2007 to 2008, she curated the Scripps Annual, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

From 1996 to 1998, she hosted the radio show "LOOK/ hear" on KXLU 88.9 FM in Los Angeles.

From 1979 to 1986, she was Laddie John Dill's Administrative/Studio Assistant.