ROBERT SHERER

Visually channeling both Neo-Classical technique and 50's etiquette manuals, Robert Sherer portrays masculinity and sex in both elegant and kitschy terms, re-contextualizing gender roles through a variety of media. Raised in a feminist household, Sherer questions the strict codes of gender and sexuality that govern our behavior, and deconstructs these boundaries in his artwork. He began to confront these sexual mores in grad school; upon reorganizing 20,000 art history slides he realized that very few paintings depicted men in submissive states and even fewer paintings depicted women in erect, powerful states. Sherer became quite angry with the tradition, and "flipped it on its head" through a series of submissive male nudes. He notes that throughout art history, men are not shown prostrate unless they are dead. Drawing from his lifelong love/ hate relationship with Neo-Classical art, Sherer employs the virtuosity of the Neo-Classical technique and eschews its conservative politics.

Often provocative and bold, Sherer's art has been prone to censorship. As a young artist, Sherer initially tried to create deliberately radical work, but it failed to move him. When he began to paint the world he knew, he faced multiple censorship cases headed by the conservative Right. The most notorious case occurred in Barnwell, South Carolina, where the Christian Coalition accused him of "[subverting] God's natural order that places men in positions that women should be in." Ironically, that statement distilled the essence of Sherer's work, which forces the viewer to question God's "natural order."

In the "Blackbird on My Shoulder" exhibit, Robert Sherer further questions conservative assumptions; namely, the notion that homosexuality exists as the antithesis of American values. Through his playful and earnest depictions of boyhood, he argues that same-sex attraction is as American as apple pie, and that such a natural occurrence should not be demonized. 50% innocent and 50% naughty, Sherer gives new meaning to the phrase "boys will be boys."

The activities and memories of Sherer’s childhood inspire both his technique and his imagery. After making painting after painting of male nudes and Neo-Classical mythology, Sherer finally returned to his love of drawing for this series. As a Boy Scout, Sherer proved extremely adept at crafts, and won various awards and merit badges for his woodburning and grommet abilities. Sherer creates a cheeky world of double-entendre, marrying craft with semi-autobiographical imagery. Clearly, he turns to old Boy Scout Manuals, 50's etiquette books, and nostalgic pop culture nuggets for the basic "look" of his drawings. To produce his kitsch / nostalgia works, Sherer draws and arranges each image to perfection on paper, burns them carefully onto sheets of wood, and treats his pieces with multiple coats of shellac. His work has progressed from monochromatic to color pieces, but they always retain his trademark tongue-in-cheek Americana. Sherer's current series expresses beautifully the awkwardness of growing up, the power hierarchy in boy culture, and the rites of passage trademark to coming-of-age.

—Jina Kim

Good Morning
pyrography/wood veneer/shellac
22" x 25" frame

Submarine Game
pyrography/wood veneer/shellac
20" x 25" framed

Melonballers
pyrography/wood veneer/shellac
22" x 25" framed