pheoris West
Professor Emeritus
The Ohio State University
He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and earned a Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University. His areas of expertise are painting and drawing, computer graphics, and design. His art has been shown in various art displays since 1970.
He has been an associate professor at the Ohio State University College of the Arts since 1976.
West considers himself an Afrocentric artist. He does not align with modern or post-modern artists. He prefers to integrate the importance of a strong moral society with cultural traditions. Africa is the source for classical art traditions and African and American cultures inspire his imagery. He symbolizes a universal message through the use of traditional tales, mythologies and religion.
His work has appeared in numerous art venues, including the Philadelphia Museum, Boston Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, MuseoCivico D'Arts Contemporaneo Di Gibillina, Palermo, Italy, and the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center. Professor West served as curator ofHomage to Jazz in 1999 at the Martin Luther King Center in Columbus. He has served on the National Endowment of the Arts Expansion Arts Panel, the International Juror National Exhibition of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio Arts Council.