Elizabeth Sher

Elizabeth Sher, Juggling, 16 mm film still, 1982. Pictured: Sue Mutant. 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. 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. 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"; 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." 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. 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). Sher lives and works in Oakland, California and exhibits with the collective, Mercury 20 Gallery.

Early life and education Elizabeth Sher was born and raised in Washington, D.C. 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. Artweek wrote that she "transform[ed] a common object and its idiomatic associations into evocative visual metaphor."

Elizabeth Sher, from "Rope" series, mixed media on paper, 1979. 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. During that period, she continued to teach art at CCA until retiring as Professor of Art Emerita in 2011. She cites multimedia artists Lynn Hershman Leeson, William Kentridge and Bruce Conner as influential for their movement between still and moving images.

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. the manic, serio-comic Juggling (1981) features punk rocker Sue Mutant as a beleaguered artist/housewife struggling to balance career, marriage and motherhood. 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. I. V. Magazine 's subjects ranged from a painterly, salsa-scored trip through a car wash in a low-rider (Wash It) to arcade games (Beat It), a punk-rock scored look at dog shows (Famous Dogs), and kiddie beauty pageants (Be a Winner);

Sher's videos also focused on gender relations and women's work. 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.

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. Critics describe it as "unexpectedly entertaining, charming and affirming," in its presentation of information and the personal, intimate insights of more than forty diverse women. Reviewers write that the film "deftly skewers American's obsession with cosmetic surgery," Her later film, Rituals of Remembrance: Exploring the Art of Mourning (2016 with Maggie Simpson Adams), has been described as a heartening "meditation on processing loss through celebration, closure, and community," which explores Victorian era, Mexican Dia de Muertos, and American DIY mourning practices.

In the 2000s, Sher created several portraits of women, offering audiences the role models she lacked in her youth. Alma’s Jazzy Marriage (2004, with Mal and Sandra Sharpe) recalled the colorful life of the strong-willed Alma Foster, jazz enthusiast and wife of influential bassist George "Pops" Foster, from early days with Louis Armstrong in New Orleans, through the Golden Age in Harlem to later life and jazz in San Francisco. Her intimate and affectionate Bella Bella (2007) weaves art, romance and health in a portrait of Bay Area septuagenarian sculptor Bella Feldman as she moves forward and continues taking risks after her husband's death, amid unfolding health problems and a new transatlantic relationship.

Sher has also created portraits of artist and feminist Edith Hillinger, chef Weezie Mott, artist Carmen Lomas Garza, dancer-choreographer Margaret Jenkins, and teacher, interpreter trainer and deaf comic, Evelyn Zola, among others.

Later art and artist books In the 2000s, Sher renewed her interest in exhibiting artwork, spurred in part by new opportunities to combine digital and hand-made modes in works on paper, canvas and metal, and artist books. Her later work examines place and the environment, as well as the roles of perception, sight and memory, and the construction of narrative in human understanding. She often focuses strongly on materials and process, as in the show "Crossing the Digital Divide" (2016), which featured mixed-media images that moved back and forth through various hand-made and digital manipulations.

Much of Sher's later work is inspired by artist residencies abroad, during which she accumulates small drawings and paintings, photographs and video that serve as source material upon return. Her show, "Morocco: Seen and Unseen" (2019), filtered North African culture through her experience as a visitor, pairing local colors and tourist-themed photos (camels, mosques) with wooden screens suggesting mashrabiyas—"harem windows" used to for privacy and shielding from male gazes (e.g., Filtered View #1). Sher's artist books, Nuggets (2009), 7 Days in Otranto (2015) and Snow Lines (2018) arose, respectively, out of residencies in New Zealand, Italy and Iceland, where the loss of snow on glaciers inspired her work. She has won awards from numerous film festivals, including Mill Valley and Intendence (Penny, 2015), Bare Bones International (Younger Thinner Smoother, 2001), and the National Education Media Arts Fest (Approaching the 14th Moon, 1994). Her art belongs to the public collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, BAM/PFA, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Austin Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California, San Jose Museum of Art, and U.S. Embassy, among others.

Selected director filmography All works video unless noted. Title YearTimeNotes Edith Hillinger: Collaging Culture 2019 18 min. Weezie Mott: Still Cookin''' 2019 19 min. Directed with Maggie Simpson Adams Rituals of Remembrance| 2017 30 min. Directed with Maggie Simpson Adams Penny| 2014 30 min. Bella Bella| 2007 26 min. Stalls| 2004 3 min. Made with Maggie Simpson Adams Alma’s Jazzy Marriage| 2004 26 min. Made with Mal and Sandra Sharpe Younger, Thinner, Smoother| 2001 51 min. Men Are From the Moon| 1998 5 min. Homenje a Tenachtitlan - dia de las Meurtas installation by Carmen Lomas Garza| 1997 24 min. When Women Go Through Menopause, Where Do Men Go?| 1996 56 min. The Master-Mentor Series| 1995 18 min. 3-part documentary series Fingers That Tickle & Delight| 1994 32 min. Bella Bella| 2007 26 min. Approaching the 14h Moon| 1993 52 min. Celluloid Seduction| 1991 11 min. Just Another Weekend (feature) 1989 26 min. Dancing on the Edge of Success| 1988 28 min. I. V. Magazine| 1984–6 60 min. Annual magazine format program Juggling| 1981 14 min. 16 mm film Too Young to Date| 1980 4 min. 16 mm film Wash It| 1980 6 min. 16 mm film Beat It| 1980 5 min. 16 mm film The Training'' 1979 9 min. 16 mm film, b/w