Phyllis Green: A Life of Artistic Inquiry
By Lorraine Heitzman
There is a meticulous elegance to everything Phyllis Green makes, a quality that is immediately apparent in her brilliant fifteen-year survey show at the Leband Art Gallery. Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making is a diverse yet cohesive exhibit, both imaginative and grounded in the textures of commonplace materials such as wood, clay, cloth, and metal. She masterfully applies her vision across multiple disciplines making sculptures that appear simple despite her extraordinary attention to details and craft. She rarely decorates or paints the surfaces of her work, preferring instead to allow the materials to speak for themselves. The subject of her work is invariably herself through the lens of Hindu teachings, of which she is an ardent student. She considers her sculptures to be personal monuments, but Green’s sculptures are on a smaller scale and serve a more intimate purpose, to focus attention on the possibility of change and spiritual growth. She constructs self-portraits, animals, and props, and uses their physicality and materiality to give weight and meaning to subjects rooted in Hindu parables. Working in different scales, she demonstrates skill creating some sculptures that are imposing and larger than life while others, like her most recent works, are miniature representations of herself.
Particularly captivating are Green’s self-portrait ceramic busts displayed together on shelves and pedestals. The artist looks at herself unflinchingly, stylizing her distinctive pageboy and serious demeanor in a variety of sizes and glazes. The largest one of these self-portraits conveys a tremendous sense of equanimity and gravitas. Her expression is somber and the iron oxide finish imparts some of the steeliness of the metal onto her character. The surface details and forms are simplified, and overall the material and treatment suggest this is a person of great strength and composure. Another compelling self-portrait is one in which the top of the head is a vessel, apparently open to receive spiritual guidance as well as the possibility of more literal substances. Other heads are polychromed and the newest series of small busts sometimes are like crude vases with her likeness below and the apertures above sitting like hats on her head.
Phyllis Green "October 2024, Courtesy of the artist and Laband Art Gallery Photo credit © Ave Pildas Phyllis Green "April 2025," Courtesy of the artist and Laband Art Gallery Photo credit © Ave Pildas "Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making," Laband Art Gallery installation, 9-2026 Photo credit: Devin Feil "Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making," Laband Art Gallery installation, 9-2026 Photo credit: Devin Feil
Hats show up frequently in Green’s work. Some are intended to be worn, as in Samiadh II (Hood), a haunting medieval-looking garment that covers the head and shoulders and helps the wearer transport sticks. It references a Hindu text that encourages offering wood to achieve enlightenment, but instead its curious shape calls to mind darker purposes as a fantastical garment conceived by Hieronymus Bosch. A quite different hat, almost Seussian, is part of Tree and Bird. This is a fanciful top hat covered in blue, orange, and yellow feathers that floats above a wearable tree stump, another image with roots in a Vedic parable. Tower is a hanging patchwork of fabrics reimagining a tower, made to commemorate fifty years of the artist working with textiles. Adjacent to that is Hat Ring, also suspended from the ceiling, made in response to the Tower. These loosely constructed and colorful women’s hats correlate to the patchwork of the Tower and bring a human, feminine presence to the built structure beside it.
Of all the self-portraits throughout the show, the one that literally dominates is Fall ’12: An Autobiography Considering Charles Ray’s Fall ’91, Green’s take on Charles Ray’s well-known sculpture made more than twenty years before her version. Both are based on a mannequin’s form, enlarged to eight feet tall, and have the same pose and suit, but she adapts hers with her own likeness. Significantly, she removes all color from her figure and suit, except for the addition of an orange silk sari, referencing her belief in the principles of Hinduism. In effect she has stripped away the context of time and consumer-driven sex appeal (relative to the ’90s) and replaced them with a more universal quality and a contemporary individualized portrait.
Phyllis Green "Fall 12: An Autobiography Considering Charles Ray's 'Fall 91'" 2012-2013 Polyurethane "Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making," Laband Art Gallery installation, Sep. 2026 Courtesy of the artist
There is also a performative side to Green’s work that her wearable sculptures support. She has constructed several armatures intended to be worn, though not in the sense of garments. These are mobile sculptures and each of them is a little larger than herself and envelops her body when standing. Imagine a frame of a box drawn around a figure. Each apparatus features wheels so that they are mobile. As displayed, they are curious structures with props, such as wood offerings, storage bags, and flowing drapery. When they are worn (as documented in photographs by Ave Pildas), their purpose as vehicles for enlightenment comes alive.
Phyllis Green "Lion/ Lamb" 2020 Resin, mixed media 70 x 107 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist and Laba "Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making," Laband Art Gallery installation, Sep. 2026 Courtesy of the artist
Another notable work is Lion/Lamb, an almost life-sized interpretation of a lion that is suspended at eye level in the entryway of the gallery. The sculpture is made of unruly fuzzy drapery trim with a head that can be removed and used as a mask, thus not only transforming the artist when she wears the lion’s head, but also turning the lion into a lamb. This piece encapsulates so much of what is integral to Green’s work. The meaning and appearance change when she interacts with the sculpture thereby exemplifying the process of metamorphosis, particularly in the spiritual sense. Rather than appearing formidable at first sight, it only takes on a fierceness when the mask is worn.
"Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making," Laband Art Gallery installation, Sep. 2026 Courtesy of the artist Phyllis Green "Still (Sitting)" 2021 Fabric, wood, mixed media 61 x 19 x 24 in. Courtesy of the art
When Phyllis Green refers to the tenets of Hinduism, she mentions devotion, service, meditation, and knowledge, all touched upon in her work either symbolically or concretely. As an artist, her creativity encapsulates all those things and seems to be the spiritual endeavor that she adheres to the most. Of My Own Making is a show that demonstrates one way of living an artful life. By merging spiritual inquiry with her creative life, Green shows the intelligent beauty of her disciplined lifelong artistic journey.
Phyllis Green: Of My Own Making
Leband Art Gallery
1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045
310-338-2700
September 24–December 5, 2026
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
Lorraine Heitzman is an artist and art writer living in Los Angeles. In addition to exhibiting her work, she also organizes and curates shows. Her work can be found at lorraineheitzman.com.
