Sherry Parker

Sherry Parker
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

STATEMENT

I am a mixed media artist and have been working in the (analog) collage medium since the early 80’s. I have exhibited in galleries in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Portland, and throughout California, as well as abroad.

My work has been reviewed as: “meticulous execution, edgy whimsy, flairs of surrealism, and witty imagination – an intense response to the poetics of life suspended between the real and the surreal.”

I have always been intrigued by CHANCE and the way in which this phenomenon inspires my work from start to finish – the serendipitous discovery of “found” materials, the random (unconscious) selection process, the fortuitous mistakes, and the bringing together of disparate ephemera to create order out of chaos. Oxymoronically, I call my process “orchestrated chance.”

Tragically, in October 2017, my home, studio, and all of my work were destroyed in the California wildfires. In June 2019, my partner and I moved to Santa Fe where we rebuilt our life. After living in New Mexico for the past five years, I have become captivated and rejuvenated by the pastel landscapes, the serenity, the Native American mythology, and the magic of this place. I find that my new work has taken on a more spiritual tonality, which I have dedicated to my partner, the star of my life who passed away in 2022.

BIO

Sherry Parker has been working in the collage medium since the early ’80s and has exhibited in galleries in New York, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Pasadena, Portland, throughout northern California and abroad.

In 2018, Parker was invited to be one of 50 international collage artists featured in Rebeka Elizegi’s 225-page book, Collage by Woman: 50 Essential Contemporary Artists, published in Spain. Other recent collage-related accomplishments include, special effects/set design for a contemporary opera company in San Francisco, and a commission by Imagery Estate Winery, Kenwood CA, to design the label for their 2015 Cabernet Franc. In 2022, she was invited to show in a traveling exhibition themed “Migration” in Birr, Ireland and Warsaw, Poland.

Tragically, in October 2017, her home, studio, and all of her work were destroyed in the ravenous California firestorms. Grateful for the generosity of her first responder artist friends, Sherry soon accumulated enough tools and materials to honor her commitments the following year to solo shows at DZINE in San Francisco and the Foley Gallery in New York City. She has since made her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she has rebuilt her studio and her life.

Parker spent her business career in advertising and marketing research from which she retired in 2007 to pursue art full time. She holds 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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