Elizabeth Sher

Artist Statement:

For more than three decades post feminist artist and filmmaker Elizabeth Sher has been an active maker in the Bay Area. Starting in fine art prints and oil painting, Sher moved into 16 mm film and mixed media works. Currently working in video, artist books and digitally-mixed media on paper and canvas, Sher has been at the cutting edge of new technologies. She mixes these with a strong basis of formal discourse and a quirky sense of popular culture blended with insightful honesty and humor.

Says Sher, " I see the computer as a tool which offers new possibilities for mixing and matching with traditional mediums in both moving and still images. My work has always been driven by process – it’s just a matter of using the right tools for the job. I realize that 2 decades ago I was making artwork that presaged what the computer makes even more fascinating today.”

Sher’s fine art prints, artist books, paintings and light boxes are included in the public collections of museums and universities and in private collections across the country. Her films have earned grants, won national festival awards, and aired on PBS and cable networks from San Francisco to New York; from Australia to Portugal and Israel.

Elizabeth Sher is Professor Emeritus of Art at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland, CA. Her prints and paintings have been shown at many university art museums and the San Francisco and San Jose Museums of Art, with solo shows in San Francisco, and across the country. Sher's films have been honored with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, the Western Regional Media Arts Fellowship Fund, The Zellerbach Family Fund, The Anheuser-Busch Foundation, The Pacific Pioneer Fund, and the Union of Independent Colleges of Art.

For more than 2 decades Sher has made more than two dozen films and videos, from 4 minutes long to feature length. Her films have been broadcast on PBS and cable channels and honored at more than 50 film festivals from Hong Kong to Edinburgh to New York.