CLAIRE SHERMAN creates works that focus on how our cognition distinguishes what is wholly abstract from what has been abstracted from our normal perception. In this investigation, Sherman has rightfully chosen the subject matter that has been at the crux of this discourse for centuries - the infinite attributes of nature, seen and unseen. Sherman’s paintings of exposed islands and chaotic forest interiors challenge us to encounter unpredictable, wild nature through the emphatic materiality of paint. Existing in tension with landscape archetypes, the paintings evoke specific places that could also be anything, anywhere.
Through accumulation and close attention to the specific, Sherman builds a landscape that is not only physical but psychological. Her work not only refines our powers of discernment, but also suggests analogies with our own vascular systems and as such helps us to sense the effects of our surrounding natural world. At the same time, Sherman’s compositions evoke fairy tales and John Tenniel’s dramatic illustrations, at once threatening and inviting. She renders deep spaces and dares us to try to penetrate them.
Claire Sherman was born in 1981 in Oberlin, Ohio. She received her B.A. from The University of Pennsylvania and her M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has completed residencies at the Terra Foundation for American Art, the MacDowell Colony, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, Yaddo, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace program. Recent solo exhibitions include shows at DC Moore Gallery, New York; Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah; Patron Gallery, Chicago, IL; and Nancy Littlejohn Gallery, Houston, TX. Recent group exhibitions include Robischon Gallery, Denver CO; SECRIST | BEACH, Chicago, IL; Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY; The Orange Advisory, Minneapolis, MN; and DC Moore Gallery, New York. Sherman's work is included in numerous collections including the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the UBS collections in London and the United States, and the Margulies Collection in Miami. Sherman is a Professor at Drew University, and lives and works in New York City.