ELIZABETH SHER: GOOD COFFEE, BAD NEWS
October 20-November 25, 2023
Elizabeth Sher seamlessly merges her personal anxieties and the pulse of the current era in her latest exhibition, Good Coffee, Bad News employing humor and beauty to make challenging news more palatable. “Morning Joe,” Sher’s large wall mural contrasts the tranquil elegance of daybreak, as observed from her window, with a surrounding border of news headlines about the climate crisis. Her video “Plenty for Some,” delves into the complex topic of food insecurity, weaving visuals of abundant, overflowing produce with statistics showing the stark reality of inadequate access to nourishment. In addition, twelve abstract watercolors from her series, “It Dawned on Me,” and “Three Bags Full,” drawings on paper headlines spotlighting fires, floods, and storms. These images build upon her fascination with the interplay between written words and visual art, an exploration she initiated in her previous solo exhibition at Mercury 20 Gallery, “Mark My Words,” in 2022.
Gallery
Elizabeth Sher
Bay Area artist and filmmaker, Elizabeth Sher is Professor Emeritus of Art at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco where she taught painting and media arts. Currently working in video, artist books, digital mixed media on canvas, paper, and metal, Sher passes freely between static and moving images, paint and pixels, traditional and new media. She mixes these with a strong basis of formal discourse and a quirky sense of popular culture blended with insightful honesty and humor. Career highlights include her work being widely collected including SFMOMA and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum of California; her films have been broadcast on PBS and internationally including “PENNY: Champion of the Marginalized” Film (writer, director, editor) and “Rituals of Remembrance: Exploring the Art of Mourning” (co-director and producer); exhibits such as “Good Coffee, Bad News” solo Show at Mercury 20 Gallery in 2024 and “Ten Years of Artist Books” curated by Donna Seager at the Brooklyn Central Library; an artist residency at Studi D’arte Nel Castelio, Aragonese, Castle, BAU Institute in Otranto, Italy; and as a featured artist at the Bioneer International Conference in 2022.