Kerri Scharlin is an American painter and

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

ist who lives and works in New York City. She is known for a series of conceptual projects made in the 1990s that explored identity through the outsourcing of self portraiture to observers such as police sketch artists, art students, and magazine profilers. The New York Times said her works are “proof that identity is not fixed, that one’s persona and possibly even one’s self are malleable and fluid, capable of continual adjustment.”

Early life and education

Scharlin grew up in Miami, FL. She earned a BA from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

, a BFA from School of Visual Arts, and attended the

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

MFA program.

Work

Witnessed

From 1991-1993 Scharlin asked artist friends to describe her to police sketch artists. She then photographically enlarged and exhibited the resulting portraits.

The Big Nothing or Le Presque Rien

In 1992 Scharlin curated "The Big Nothing or Le Presque Rien" at the New Museum. The artists in the show included Janine Antoni, Fred Wilson,

Wendy Jacob Wendy W. Jacob (born 1958) is a multidisciplinary artist. She is best known for works in the areas of sculpture, public art and urban intervention. Life Jacob was born in Rochester, New York in 1958. She received her bachelor's degree from Willia ...

Sam Samore Sam Samore is an American artist. His work is concerned with an exploration of privacy and myth in contemporary society. He has made numerous works which appropriate photo-techniques typically used by private detectives A private investigat ...

, Gary Simmons, Devon Dikeou, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The exhibition featured works that were subtle or invisible, appearing at first glance as an empty room.

Student Body

In 1993, Scharlin put up fliers advertising herself as a free live model for art students in exchange for the drawings and sculptures of her body. She exhibited the resulting works at Dooley LeCappellaine Gallery in New York.

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

said of the project that:

In inverting the traditional relationship between artist and “muse,” Scharlin sought to examine its social and economic nexus. Scharlin’s work asks one to imagine the differences that would exist in the system of capital surrounding the work of art, and in art-historical discourse, if Manet’s Olympia or
Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...
’ Odalisque had controlled the means of production.

Interview

For the project ''Interview'', Scharlin commissioned writers, photographers, and graphic designers from well known publications to create articles about her in the style of their respective publications. These publications included Self, Allure,

G.Q. ''GQ'' (formerly ''Gentlemen's Quarterly'' and ''Apparel Arts'') is an American international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though articles on ...

, Vanity Fair, and

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direct ...

and the tone and style of the coverage shifts accordingly in each article. The New York Times said this work "places Ms. Scharlin in a tradition of what might be called performance photography; it includes

Lynda Benglis Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She maintains residences in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kastellorizo, Greece, and Ahmedaba ...

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot'' (1971), where he arranged ...

, Cindy Sherman, and Jeff Koons."

Diary

In 1997 Scharlin commissioned writer/ producers from famous television shows -

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble c ...

, Caroline in the City,

One Life to Live ''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...

Beavis and Butt-Head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...

, Thirtysomething, and

My So Called Life ''My So-Called Life'' is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995. It is distributed by The Bed ...

- to turn passages from her diary into five minute scripts in the style of their respective shows. She displayed storyboards based on their scripts, as well as videos of thirty-five actresses auditioning for the role of "Kerri Scharlin", at Wooster Gardens in New York.

Girls' School

In 2006, Scharlin a group of paintings that were inspired by her daughter's attendance of a private school in Manhattan.

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...

called the paintings, "scary, eroticized ''Children of the Corn'' work which stared back cunningly".

In Her Studio

In 2019, Scharlin showed a series of works of women artists in their studios. She sourced imagery using the internet and rendered these paintings in an "Expressionistic figurative style that harks back to

Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

, Der Blaue Reiter and

Bonnard Bonnard is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Abel Bonnard (1883–1968), French poet, novelist and politician * (18881959), Swiss scholar and translator of classical Greek * Jean-Louis Bonnard (1824&ndas ...

." The paintings were envisioned as an "invitation to friendship" or a way of building community.

Exhibitions

Scharlin has had solo exhibitions at Dooley LeCappellaine, New York (1993), Postmasters Gallery, New York (1993), Jose Freire Gallery, New York (1994), Schaper Sundberg Galleri, Stockholm (1995), Wooster Gardens, New York (1997), Kustera Tilton Gallery, New York (2006), and New Release Gallery, New York (2019). She curated the show ''The Big Nothing or Le Presque Rien'' at the New Museum in 1992.

Personal life

Scharlin lives in New York with her husband Peter. She has a son and daughter.

References

External links

Kerri Scharlin Artist Website

New Release Gallery In Her Studio

Studio Visit with Kerri Scharlin

New Museum Archive: The Big Nothing or Le Presque Rien

Civitella Ranieri Foundation

The Miraculous in Houston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scharlin, Kerri Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American contemporary painters American conceptual artists American women conceptual artists Hunter College alumni Barnard College alumni 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters Artists from Miami