Pheoris West
Pheoris West (August 17, 1950 – January 23, 2021) was an African-American artist and educator. He was born in Albany, New York, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and earned an MFA from Yale University. West joined the Ohio State University College of the Arts faculty in 1976 and became an associate professor emeritus.
West worked in painting, drawing, computer graphics, and design. He was influenced by Romare Bearden, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and the AfroCOBRA movement. He aimed for balanced, harmonious depictions of humanity and often used the black woman as a symbol of Mother Earth and humanity’s origins.
His artwork has been shown since the 1970s and is in collections such as the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. He curated the 1999 HOMAGE TO JAZZ exhibition at the King Arts Complex in Columbus and served on several arts panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts Expansion Arts Panel and the Ohio Arts Council.
West described himself as Afrocentric, drawing on African and American cultural traditions, mythologies, and religion to convey universal messages. His most common subject was the black woman. He remained active in teaching and the arts after a stroke in 2016. He was married twice, to Louise Calio and then Michele Hoff, and he had three sons (triplets) and a daughter. He died in 2021 at age 70.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 21:02 (CET).