Sherry Parker

Sherry Parker
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

STATEMENT

I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico from California after my home and my studio burned down in 2017. It took quite a while to get started again: building my new studio, collecting new materials, and taking an uncharted leap into this new world.

Over the previous two decades, I had been on a roll in California with art shows across the country as well as internationally. Now, as I have acclimated to my life in Santa Fe, my work seems to have unconsciously taken on a softer tonality—no longer as edgy, but still surreal. I have been inspired by the night sky of New Mexico and this beautiful, serene, and pastel land which has become a new muse to me. The Native American culture, beliefs, and spiritual sensuality of this place has subtly found its way into my fantasy world—almost like a guide or an angel.

Through chance-play, my collages originate from the serendipitous discovery of “found” out-of-print materials, from which I randomly cut images that haphazardly form curious connections. I begin playing with hundreds of these cutouts on my board—reorganizing, subtracting, and adding others. Eventually, what began as chaos magically becomes what I call “orchestrated chance”—at which point my piece finally speaks to me.

My work still reflects, more than ever, my playfully irreverent response to the “furious folly” of these times. It is my way of trying to soften the rough edges of life’s adversities. New Mexico is making this easier.

BIO

Internationally respected mixed-media artist Sherry Parker has been working in the (analogue) collage medium since the early 80s. She has exhibited in galleries in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Portland, and throughout California, as well as abroad. In January 2026, she was selected to show at the “International Collage Exhibition” at the University of Warsaw in July 2026. The show is curated by Anna Klos, founder and owner of the Galeria Retroavangarda.

Due to a firestorm that destroyed her home and studio in California in 2017, Parker has been out of the mainstream for a few years. In 2019, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she has rebuilt her home, her studio, and her new life.

Sherry has been published in many national and international books and articles. Additionally, selected accomplishments include: inclusion in Spanish curator, Rebeka Elzeig’s 2018 book, Collage by Women: 50 Essential Contemporary Artists; label design for a California winery; CD cover for a Japanese avant-garde music producer; and special effects/set design for a contemporary opera company in San Francisco.

Parker spent her business career in advertising and marketing research, from which she retired in 2007 to pursue art full time. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a graduate degree in French from the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.

ARTIST CONTACT

EMAIL | WEBSITE

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