Kelly & Kyle Phelps
Identical twin brothers Kelly and Kyle Phelps are Professors at private Catholic universities in Ohio. Kelly Phelps is a Professor at Xavier University (Cincinnati) and Kyle is a Professor at University Dayton (Dayton) where they head the sculpture and ceramic departments. Much of the twins’ ceramics based work is about the blue collar working-class, race relations, and the everyday struggles of the common man and woman. The twins continue to work collaboratively to create their artwork and share a studio in Centerville (OH). They share numerous grants, regional, national, and international exhibitions, and commissions. Their work is also included in many permanent museum collections across the United States. Most notable private collectors of the twin’s work are in the hands of film director Michael Moore, and actor Morgan Freeman as well as major reviews in Ceramics Monthly, Sculpture Magazine, and American Craft Magazine. Before entering the world of academia, and becoming professors, the twins experienced firsthand what the struggles of the working class was really about! They grew up in a blue-collar/factory environment in a “company town” in Indiana where they were inspired by family members and friends who worked and lived in various manufacturing plants, steel mills, foundries, coal mines, and railroads of the American midwest, rustbelt, and Appalachian regions of the United States. These everyday people became working class heroes that have inspired nearly three decades of working-class art that continues to this very day.
