Claire Sherman

Claire Sherman earned her Bachelor of Arts from The University of Pennsylvania and her Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her painting practice is invested in trying to reinvigorate the genre of landscape painting from a contemporary perspective. Her work attempts to disrupt the idealism of imagery in landscape through materiality: image and expectation are disrupted by paint. She explains her work as follows: “Spaces create a tension between the painted surface and the image that is represented. The choreography in her paint is meant to evoke a visceral reaction rather than remaining a representation of experience.” Sherman’s painted marks become a geology or archaeology of their own, representing (and becoming) the strata of the natural world. The landscapes reference idealistic visions of the sublime, but become less known and defined than that genre might imply as the paintings unfold.

Sherman has presented solo exhibitions and been included in group exhibitions at numerous institutions, both internationally and domestically. 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. 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.