Elizabeth Sher (born 1943) is an American visual artist, known for eclectic short films, documentaries about women, art, aging and health, and mixed-media artwork employing digital and analog modes.Peters, Catherine. "Totally Tubular Artists: SF is in the vanguard of a revolution in video art," San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, September 15, p. 14–5.Cohn, Abby. "Film Examines Boomer’s Obsession with Youth," San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2001, p. 2.Corbin, Mary. "Artist Elizabeth Sher Plays With Perception," Alameda Magazine, June 5, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2020. Her films combine humor, honesty and an interest in everyday experiences; while not strictly autobiographical, her work often explores issues that parallel her own life cycle.Ahlgren, Calvin. "A Wit and Her Piquant Works," San Francisco Chronicle, December 4, 1983, p. 33.Armstrong, David. "Berkeley Video Artist’s TV ‘Magazine’ With a Few Twists," San Francisco Examiner, December 26, 1986.Cantú, A. "Younger, Thinner, Smoother," Video Librarian, November/December 2002.Allen, Sarah. "Elizabeth Sher, Filmmaker," The Oakland Tribune, March, 1997. The San Francisco Examiner described her early short films as "witty combinations" of music and imagery, formal experimentation, clever editing and rewarding interviews, "infused with arch satire";Anderson, Jeffery M. "Fantastic Plastic," San Francisco Examiner, March 18, 2001, p. C1, C6. Amalia Mesa-Bains wrote that her documentaries create "that special mix of common sense, irony and human insight [that] inspires us to talk more, laugh a lot and trust each other."Mesa-Bains, Amalia. Elizabeth Sher: Lightboxes & Artist Books, Oakland, CA: I. V. Studios, 2006. Sher's films have screened at the Kennedy Center and the London, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Raindance international film festivals, and been broadcast on PBS and public television networks throughout the world; they have been recognized with awards from the American Film Institute, National Education Media Arts Fest, and the Mill Valley and Bare Bones International film festivals, among others.Markusen, Ann, et al (ed). Crossover: How Artists Build Careers Across Commercial, Nonprofit and Community Work, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation/James Irvine Foundation/LINC, 2006, p 40, 42, 54–55. Retrieved February 12, 2020.Konefsky Bryan (ed). Experiments in She-ness: women and undependent cinema, Albuquerque, NM: Basement Films, 2016, p. 116–21. Retrieved February 12, 2020.Canyon Cinema Foundation. " Elizabeth Sher," Filmmakers. Retrieved February 12, 2020.Bare Bones International Film Festival. Bare Bones Moviemakers: Documentaries, 2001. Retrieved February 12, 2020. Her art has been exhibited internationally and belongs to the public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA).Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Elizabeth Sher," Collections. Retrieved February 12, 2020.BAMPFA. "Elizabeth Sher." Retrieved February 14, 2020. Sher lives and works in Oakland, California and exhibits with the collective, Mercury 20 Gallery.Bell, Camryn. "Mercury 20 Gallery’s ‘Self-Portraits in the Age of Selfies’ expands the scope of self-portraiture," The Daily Californian, January 21, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
Early life and education Elizabeth Sher was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She attended Smith College before studying at the San Francisco Art Institute and University of California, Berkeley where she earned a BA (1964) and an MA in Painting and Printmaking (1967). She was influenced by Bay Area Figurative artists Elmer Bischoff and Gordon Cook, who encouraged her interest in art that reaches viewers in a clear, direct way, but has often noted the lack of female mentors in that era.
In the 1970s, Sher built a reputation as a printmaker and painter with complex prints and mixed-media works noted for their technical virtuosity, rich surfaces, dynamic compositions and sense of light.Levine, Melinda. "Paper in many Roles," Artweek, July 1978.Dickson, Joanne. "Four Independents’ Offer Good Art Sampling," Palo Alto Times, July 27, 1978.Miller, Elise. "Spinning Visions," San Diego Magazine, March 1981. She drew particular attention (and a San Francisco Art Festival award) for her "Rope" series, a largely abstract body of work that explored the formal and expressive possibilities of rope and incorporated photography, etching, serigraphy, collage, gestural drawing and painting, and sculptural elements.Boettger, Suzaan. "Knowing the Ropes," Artweek, 1980.Fowler, Carol. "Celebration of Printmaking," Contra Costa Times, July 8, 1979, p 29.MacDonald, Robert. "Images of Women – Censored and Uncensored," Artweek, February 1979. Artweek wrote that she "transform[ed] a common object and its idiomatic associations into evocative visual metaphor."Garfinkle, Ada. "Rope Shows Grace," The Independent Journal (Marin), October 25, 1979, p. 18.
In 1979, Sher began teaching drawing and painting at California College of the Arts (CCA). By that time, she had become disillusioned with the art-world/gallery system and began to explore technology and 16mm film, seeking a less hierarchical and proscribed form of expression that might reach a wider audience and include humor.Hillinger, Edith. "Elizabeth Sher, 'When Women Go Through Menopause, Where Do Men Go'," Women of Vision Journal, Summer 1997, p 13–4. While she continued to make art, her public career focused on film and video over the next three decades, produced through the company she founded in 1979, I. V. Studios.Donato, Marla. "Showing a Head for Video," Chicago Reader, February 6, 1984.Stefanac, Suzanne. "Not just another feature," Feature, April–May 1988. During that period, she continued to teach art at CCA until retiring as Professor of Art Emerita in 2011.
Work Despite apparent differences, Sher's two main areas of work—mixed-media art and films and videos—share a process-based approach involving framing and editing.Women Eco Artists Dialogue. "Elizabeth Sher," Artists. Retrieved February 12, 2020. She cites multimedia artists Lynn Hershman Leeson, William Kentridge and Bruce Conner as influential for their movement between still and moving images. Sher's film themes center on women, art and healthy aging—sometimes in conjunction—and have been noted for their humor and comic timing, feminist slant, and insight. Her themes loosely pace the decades and challenges of her own life: adolescence, motherhood (30s), menopause and marriage (40s and 50s), aging (60s), health and full living (70s).Whittaker, Richard. "Bella Feldman and Elizabeth Sher at the Berkeley Art Center: Bella Bella," Work & Conversations, July 14, 2013.
Short films Sher's first film, The Training (1979), set the course for much of her future work, combining humor, common experiences and pointed observation; the deadpan, black-and-white work—which blends Army training footage and scenes shot in her home—was inspired by a militaristic manual on toilet training she received and tried. In the rock-video spoof Too Young to Date (1981) and Pearls (1984), Sher explored prepubescent sexuality and fantasy;Frank, Nancy. "Video View," Ego Magazine, June 1, 1981. the manic, serio-comic Juggling (1981) features punk rocker Sue Mutant as a beleaguered artist/housewife struggling to balance career, marriage and motherhood.
In the early 1980s, Sher turned to the more populist (and affordable) video format, often packaging works together in a fast-paced program called I. V. Magazine.Dragin, Burt. "Video Artist Puts Society’s Fringe on Tape," The Berkeley Gazette, February 1, 1984, p. 11.I. V. Studios. "Compilations." Retrieved February 12, 2020. The San Francisco Examiner and others noted the subversive and eclectic quality of its pop-culture vignettes, commercial parodies, cringe humor and critique, and experimental color graphics, as well as the value of its matter-of-fact, unadorned people profiles.Barnes, Harper. "I. V. Magazine," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1985. I. V. Magazine's subjects ranged from a painterly, salsa-scored trip through a car wash in a low-rider (Wash It)Ketcham, Diana. "Zany video art comes to Berkeley tonight," The Oakland Tribune, February 6, 1984. to arcade games (Beat It), a punk-rock scored look at dog shows (Famous Dogs), and kiddie beauty pageants (Be a Winner); the Kansas City Star compared its depictions of fringe culture to the work of Diane Arbus.Tilton, Frank. "Elizabeth Sher’s Video Magazine is a Direct Injection," Kansas City Star, April 15, 1985.
Sher's videos also focused on gender relations and women's work. Check Up (1984) is a feminist send-up of mid-life gynecological exams—insensitive male doctors and all; My Mom's a Cop (1984), portrays a woman's empowering and invigorating career change from French teacher to policewoman. Two videos examine sexuality: the funny-sad Community Service (1984) offers an inside view of phone sex work, while Celluloid Seduction (1991) is an early examination of the issue of consent. A later satire, Stalls (2004), attacks the gender inequality of public restroom access, offering creative strategies for women to beat long lines.I. V. Studios. "Shorts." Retrieved February 12, 2020. In addition to short films, Sher produced, directed and edited the independent feature, Just Another Weekend (1989), a Christmas-set comedy that explored the phases of love relationships—from dating to mature accommodation—through three couples.Gold, Richard. "Miramax pickup, 'Roger' bidding mark IFFM opening," Variety, October 11–7, 1989.Cortner, Sandra. "'Just Another Weekend' brings film crew to town," Mountain Sun, February 11, 1988, p. 18.
Documentary films Sher often pursues documentary subjects based on her own personal challenges, as in the award-winning Approaching the 14th Moon (1993), which examines the "silent passage" of menopause.Latimer, Michelle. "Film Features Facts, Feelings on Menopause," San Jose Mercury News, December 21, 1994.McCullough, Helen. "Approaching the 14th Moon," Video Rating Guide for Libraries, March 1997, p. 810. Critics describe it as "unexpectedly entertaining, charming and affirming," dramatic and offbeatWilcox, Carolyn. "When Women Go Through Menopause, Where Do Men Go?" Library Journal, March 1, 1997, p. 115. in its presentation of information and the personal, intimate insights of more than forty diverse women.Sacks Melinda. "Local Film Shows Life Through Women’s Eyes," San Jose Mercury News, March 4, 1994.Gerhard, Susan. "(S)equal Time," The San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 10, 1993. 14th Moon led to a companion work, When Women Go Through Menopause, Where Do Men Go? (1996), which combined Mal Sharpe's humorous man-in-the-street interviews, information, cartoons, and frank and hopeful discussions with men about the effects of menopause on relationships and their own (largely hidden) concerns about aging and sexuality, empty-nest syndrome and retirement.Glazer, K. "Boyz II Menopause," Library Journal, March–April 1998.