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. Mixing these with a strong basis of formal discourse and a quirky sense of popular culture blended with insightful honesty and humor, Sher’s works comments on her environment – social, political and natural.
Says Sher, ” I see the computer as a tool for exploiting content important to me. It offers new possibilities for mixing and matching traditional mediums in both moving and still images with digital manipulations. 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. Sher is Professor Emeritus from California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland, CA.