Steven Shearer

Vancouver based artist Steven Shearer works in a broad range of disciplines including painting and collage, and continues to investigate the vernacular aesthetics of the 1970s as a site for looking at the emancipatory energies and sometimes revolutionary potential of teens and youth. He has assembled a growing archive of photographs, mostly downloaded from the web, of amateur record and tape collections, guitars and other totems of youthful rebellion and identification. He has also produced a number of works anthologizing images of 70s teen pop idols like Shawn Cassidy, whose androgynous sexuality and rapid climb into and then out of the heights of teen fandom is used for its autobiographical metaphors. 

The exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery will assemble a wide spectrum of Shearer's recent work with the aim of profiling its many convergent strains. The centerpiece for the show will be a recent sculptural installation made from prefabricated parts of steel garden sheds, inside of which a guitar PIA system plays a heavy metal guitar solo specially commissioned by Shearer. The “music” is amplified and distorted by the metal of the shed, creating a keening shrine to angry, cloistered youth. 

### Biography

Steven Shearer has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally and has recently held solo exhibitions at Colin Deland’s American Fine Arts Co., NYC; Mars Gallery, Tokyo; Blum & Poe, LA; and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Upcoming solo exhibitions include Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich and Goodwater Gallery, Toronto.  Shearer will be exhibiting as part of the group exhibition *Pin-Up: Contemporary Collage and Drawing* at the Tate Modern, London. Texts on his work have been featured in *ARTFORUM* and in catalogue essays such as *Rock My World* by Ralph Rugoff. Shearer’s work has also been commissioned and appropriated by pop culture mags Arena Homme, Dazed & Confused, photographer Terry Richardson, bands Chicks on Speed, Angelblood and Belgian black metalers Spasm.


Installation image of works by Steven Shearer. An installation of a children-size house is placed in the corner of the gallery space. Twelve two-dimensional works including prints and drawings are mounted on the walls. 

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Installation image of works by Steven Shearer. Various-sized collage pieces and paintings are mounted on two walls. Among these works, there is a large-size collage work, which shows piles of wrapped gifts on a grey background. 

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01-StevenShearer-2004 .jpeg

Installation image of works by Steven Shearer. Seven text-based works, on which English words appear in all capital letters in white on black background, are mounted on the wall.

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Installation image of works by Steven Shearer. Paintings, collage works, and photographs are mounted on the wall. Many of them are coloured. Some works show figures of a person with long straight hair. 

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Installation image of works by Steven Shearer. Paintings, collage works, and photographs are mounted on the walls. On a far wall, a large photo collage work is installed.

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05-StevenShearer-2004 .jpeg

Installation image of works by Steven Shearer. Paintings, drawings, collage works, and photographs are mounted on the walls. Many of these works show figures of people, including a portrait of a person with a long brown beard.

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The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by three Vancouver artists: Warren Murfitt, Derek Root and Steven Shearer. Using a variety of media, these artists have in common a visual reference to forms of abstract art from the 1960s: Hard-Edge, Op and Minimalism. Their approach to this visual language, however, is derived from different sources and none of these artists was fully aware of the other's work before this exhibition.

There are tendencies internationally toward re-examining the language of abstract art from various points of view. The artists in this exhibition are not nostalgically yearning for the work or ideas of the 1960s. They have used the strong visual forms of abstraction to incite an immediate response by the viewer; there is the promise of a purely visual experience, but there is, at the same time, something unsettling. Murfitt's op-ish patterns look abstract but are deceptively familiar; Root's pristine appearing surfaces are layered with nuances and variations that arise from his process of hand-crafting; Shearer's systematic patterns are disrupted by texts that speak of insecurity.

This exhibition carries on concerns about abstract art that have been explored in two previous 1994 Contemporary Art Gallery exhibitions: Mina Totino, Paintings; Helmut Dorner, Under The Surface.

Essay: “Warren Murfitt, Derek Root, Steven Shearer,” Keith Wallace

A large sculpture in a gallery space. It is made of a wood and metal structure and shows an enlarged wood pattern in the interior. This inside part is lit in bright-blue.

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06-MurffitShearerRoot-1994.jpeg

A large painting mounted on a white wall. The painting has a yellow background and a gridded dot pattern. Most of the dots are white, but some red and black dots are spread throughout.

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The corner of a gallery space with various artworks mounted on both walls. The works are paintings on square/rectangle canvasses. Many of them are one single colour but two have a dotted pattern. 

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01-MurffitShearerRoot-1994.jpeg

A gallery space with artworks on the walls. The work in the centre is a large sculpture made of a wooden frame. The opening of the structure shows a large wood-pattern lit in bright blue.

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02-MurffitShearerRoot-1994.jpeg

3 artworks on wood panels mounted on a white wall. They show black geometric patterns on natural wood with text. The work on the left has a grid pattern that reads "learn the truth I tried to hide." 

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The corner of a gallery space with 3 artworks visible. One is a wooden structure that shows a large wood pattern inside, in blue. The other 2 works are wood panels with black geometric patterns. 

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05-MurffitShearerRoot-1994.jpeg

Warren Murfitt, Derek Root, Steven Shearer

This publication was produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery in 2004 to coincide with the exhibition of work by Steven Shearer at the Contemporary Art Gallery, November 19, 2004 – January 9, 2005. The publication was designed by Steven Shearer and Julian Gosper and includes a colour poster.

Steven Shearer

Exhibitions

Publications & Editions