Julie Green's The Last Supper: Final Plates is now open at the Corvallis Museum.
Nationally renowned artist and Oregon State University art professor Julie Green (they/them) began this series of paintings on second-hand ceramic plates in the 1990s after reading about the final meals of inmates on death row in Oklahoma. Each cobalt blue-painted meal includes the date of the execution and the state where it occurred.
This is the first exhibition of the final 200 pieces in this series. In a 2020 artist’s statement Green wrote, "For me, a final meal request humanizes death row." They originally intended to continue this body of work until capital punishment was abolished but announced that it would end at 1,000 plates after a cancer diagnosis. Green passed away in October 2021. The Last Supper is shown courtesy of The Last Supper Trust.
Julie Green was born in 1961, in Yokosuka, Japan, where their father was stationed with the Navy. They grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and studied graphic design at the University of Kansas where they earned a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. For the past two decades, they taught art at Oregon State University.
The Corvallis Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and is located at 411 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, Oregon.
