Elizabeth Sher: SURREALITY – February 12, 2021 – March 20, 2021 at Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA

My artwork over the last decade has been inspired by residencies in foreign countries: I make small scale works abroad, then bring them back to my Oakland studio, where they evolve into more finished pieces. I describe these works as “taking place” – i.e., taking inspiration from my personal responses to experiencing new and unfamiliar surroundings. Prior solo shows at Mercury 20 presented works from artist residencies in Iceland (2018) and Morocco (2019).

This year, Covid-19 made travel impossible. Starting in mid-March, I sheltered in place at a cottage on the Russian River in western Sonoma county. Everything was closed and time slowed way down. For three months I walked, cooked, did yoga and worked on art. My satellite studio became my refuge, its own unique kind of artist residency.

My art supplies included a tablet of graph paper and I became obsessed with drawing x’s and o’s in, on, over and around the field of teal squares. I thought: while love (o’s and x’s) can’t fix everything, it is still important to hold onto, especially in frightening times. I remembered the lessons of my mentor, painter Elmer Bischoff, who encouraged me to uncover the quirkiest qualities of my work, to work intuitively, and to surprise myself. Repeated mark-making became a physical mantra, calming my anxieties over the election, Covid-19, and bizarre weather patterns brought on by increasingly intense climate change. The result was the series Graphing an Uncertain Future.

Soon came the fires and resulting dense smoke, scary bright orange skies, and devastation. The air was often worse at my home in Oakland than at the Russian River; in both locations, visibility was very low. This, along with the same stories repeating endlessly all over the news, made it hard to see anything clearly in either place. The series Smoke Screens is my response to the lack of clarity on so many fronts.

I hope these works will elicit a personal response and perhaps offer a way to connect with your own life during these times.