PHYLICIA GHEE

Bio:

Phylicia Ghee is an interdisciplinary visual artist, photographer, and curator whose work explores embodiment, temporal permeability, transition, ritual, and the lingering effects of emotional, environmental, and economic extraction on people and land. Working across photography, textiles, sound, performance, video, found materials, and immersive installation, she creates sensory-based environments that investigate how memory is carried physiologically, materially, and spatially across generations.

Rooted in healing, nervous system restoration, ecological reciprocity, and cyclical ways of knowing, Ghee approaches the studio as an ecosystem rather than a production site. Her work examines the intersections of personal and collective memory, inviting viewers into immersive experiences that encourage reflection, connection, altered perception, and transformation.

Taught by her Grandfather (www.gheetheartist.com) at an early age, Ghee's multidisciplinary practice spans photography, performance, video, fibers, sound, installation, found materials and sensory elements. She earned a BFA in Photography with a concentration in Curatorial Studies from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2010.

Ghee's work has been exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at institutions including New York University, The Walters Art Museum, Banneker-Douglass Museum, Art on the Vine (Martha’s Vineyard), Studio Arts Centers International (Florence. Italy), The African American Museum in Philadelphia, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse (Miami, FL), Fridman Gallery (NY), and The Nicholson Project (Southeast, DC), where her 2023 residency culminated in a multi-sensory solo exhibition. In 2025, she was named the Hackerman Artist in Residence at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

A four-time Baker Artist Award finalist, two-time Sondheim Artscape Prize finalist, Pratt>FORWARD Fellow, and recipient of the 2021 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award, Ghee's work has been recognized for artistic excellence, innovation, and community impact. She has also received recognition from Yumi Hogan and the Maryland Behavioral Health Administration for her contributions to mental health awareness, behavioral health advocacy, and healing-centered community engagement through the arts.

Alongside her studio practice, Ghee has built a distinguished 20-year career as a professional photographer and visual storyteller. She made history as the first Black woman and one of only 23 photographers in American history to serve as Official Photographer for the U.S. Capitol, House of Representatives. Her professional work spans editorial, corporate, nonprofit, government, and cultural sectors, specializing in portraiture, documentary photography, creative direction, visual storytelling, and community-centered narrative development.

In addition to her studio practice, Ghee works as a consultant, collaborating with artists, cultural institutions, libraries, nonprofits, and government agencies on exhibitions, public programs, residencies, artist-centered initiatives, and creative strategy. Through this work, she develops projects and experiences that foster meaningful dialogue, collective care, and cultural transformation.

Ghee has led workshops, retreats, and speaking engagements exploring the intersections of art, healing, rest, and embodiment. She has spoken at Spelman College and MICA, and facilitated programs, workshops and retreats in Baltimore, New Orleans, and Ibadan, Nigeria.

“Like the dead- seeming cold rocks, I have memories within that came out of the material that went to make me.” ~ Zora Neale Hurston

My work explores embodiment, temporal permeability, transition, ritual, and the lingering effects of emotional, environmental, and economic extraction on both people and land. Working across photography, textiles, sound, performance, video, found materials, and immersive installation, I create sensory-based environments that investigate how memory is carried physiologically, materially, and spatially across generations.

At the center of my practice is a fascination with interiority—both physical and psychological. Through sensory and spatial exploration, I examine the ways memory lives within the body, moves across time, and shapes our relationship to ourselves, one another, and the landscapes we inhabit. My work often begins with a desire to understand what cannot be easily seen: inherited stories, emotional residue, ancestral knowledge, grief, longing, and the subtle traces left behind by experience.

I am drawn to thresholds, liminal spaces, and moments of transition. Time in my work is rarely linear. Instead, I approach it as porous and permeable—a space where past, present, and future coexist. Through immersive installations and interdisciplinary projects, I create opportunities for memory, imagination, and lived experience to overlap, inviting viewers into altered relationships with time, place, and perception.

Each medium functions as its own language. Working across photography, fibers, video, performance, installation, painting, and mixed media allows ideas to evolve in the form they require. Projects often unfold over many years, with materials carrying their own histories from one body of work into another. Ashes from a fire, handwritten notes, soil, hair, textiles, found objects, and remnants of previous works frequently reappear, creating a living archive where memory is not preserved but continually transformed.

My practice is rooted in cyclical processes, material reuse, and ecological reciprocity. I approach the studio as an ecosystem rather than a production site—one centered on attentiveness, repair, rhythm, slowness, nervous system restoration, and relationship. Through sensory experiences that may include sound, texture, scent, touch, and spatial intervention, I create environments that encourage sustained attention and deeper connection.

Lineage remains a guiding force throughout my work. My grandfather, an interdisciplinary artist himself, left an indelible imprint on my creative life. The ink of my mother's pen, the stitches of my grandmother's needle, the patchwork legacy of my great-grandmother's quilting, and the herbal knowledge passed through generations all reverberate through my practice. These inheritances—both known and unknown—surface as materials, visions, gestures, dreams, intuitions, and memories that continue to shape the work.

Ultimately, I am interested in creating spaces where the visible and invisible converge; where memory can be encountered as something living, palpable, tangible, and in motion. Through immersive, sensory experiences, I seek to make space for reflection, connection, healing, and transformation while honoring the complex relationships between body, land, ancestry, and time.