Cindy Sherman

Courtesy of Ellen Liman / Liman Gallery

Cindy Sherman is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential artists in contemporary art. Throughout her career, she has presented a sustained, eloquent, and provocative exploration of the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation, drawn from the unlimited supply of images from movies, TV, magazines, the Internet, and art history. Wily and beguiling, Sherman's signature mode of art making involves transforming herself into a litany of characters, historical and fictional, that cross the lines of gender and culture. For more than 30 years, Sherman has assumed the roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, stylist, and wardrobe mistress to captured herself in a range of guises and personas which are at turns amusing and disturbing, distasteful and affecting.Through mise-en-scène  and movie-like make-up and costume, Sherman treats each photograph as a portrait, though never as one of the self. She embodies her characters fully, even if only for the image itself.

Though a shape-shifter, Sherman has become an art world celebrity in her own right. The subject of solo retrospectives across the world, including a blockbuster showing at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and a frequent exhibitor at the Venice Biennale among other biennials, Sherman holds an inextricable place in contemporary art history.