Hot New York artist in Atwater! by Andee Eve Husney

Go see Michael Sherman as soon as you can. His work is astounding. I looked at his work via digital files and I really liked it. I was prompted to cover his show for my column in Citizen LA. I was unable to make it to the opening, so I stopped by Little Bird Gallery in Atwater yesterday to see the work in person. I was so blown away by his work. The immediacy of his work, the visceral quality is just astounding. I keep thinking about it. I have to go back and look at it again. Luckily his show will be up until August 6th. Little Bird Gallery is located at 3195 Glendale Blvd in Atwater. Don't miss it!

As the sun is beginning to set in Los Angeles, I place the call to Michael Sherman. With three hours time difference, I imagine Michael is winding down from the day. Before we begin talking, Michael puts me on hold, “hang on a sec, I’m gonna go out on the stoop, it’s really hot here in New York.”

Immediately, I think of the differences of life on the two coasts. I wish I had a stoop. Not that I mind my porch. I quite like my little porch in Atwater, but the stoop brings back memories of my father. My dad hung out on stoops. My dad lived on the Lower East Side running numbers and scraping by a life in a seedy underground world.

And somehow, for a split second, as Michael puts me on hold, a flood of memories wafts through my consciousness. This flood of my memories, my experiences with places, with environments is similar to the way that Sherman discusses his work.

“ My work comes from where I live and how I live. It begins with places and environment as a starting point, and then there’s a breaking away into the paint and the marks on the canvas. It becomes visceral and I let my response with the materials be the result.”

I want to know more. I want to know where he has lived and how this all fits into informing the work. Born in Ohio, he moved to study art in Rhode Island and continued on to Italy and Argentina before making his home in Brooklyn today.

Italy. Memories of red, pink, and yellow toned buildings flood my thoughts. I am lost in the taste of fresh basil: sharp and sweet. And I can hear the laughter, so much laughter. I think of warm nights and crisp air.

I snap back to the conversation. Right. Michael Sherman. Paintings. And somehow we begin to talk of color. Michael tells me he is influenced a lot by the light in Italy. “The color,” he tells me, “is based on an actual place, it is a composite of something and whittling away of other things; what is shown are quiet images, depicting a minimal context.”

At this point I am particularly taken with a painting of the interior of a room. The warm tones and the treatment of texture reminds me so much of buildings on the Italian seaside, colors worn away through time, more beautiful and rich for the experience. In discussing this piece, Sherman tells me how his experience of the more minimal aesthetic in Italy and in New York seemed exotic when compared to his native Ohio.

Current influences for Sherman include New York City. “The city is so diverse, and the mix of social, cultural, and financial diversity...you can’t escape it. You have to interact with it. You learn and see and experience a lot. It’s also a huge distraction. It takes a lot of effort to stay focused.”

In addition to the upcoming show at Little Bird Gallery, we talk of another project that is close to his heart. Michael is working on a project in Whitehall, Ohio, bringing accessible art to alternative venues. The project is one designed to bring visual art into communities where there is otherwise none. He will be doing temporary murals and hopes that the city itself will become a sort of gallery. We talk of how it can be exciting to see murals and how just viewing art can inspire people.

At a certain point, I notice how our conversation on the telephone somewhat mirrors the conversation that one has with the work itself. It is a conversation of environment, of response, of where and how we live in whichever place we are. Whether Michael sits on a stoop in Brooklyn, or invites me to recall fond memories of the Italian coast, it is environment. It is where and how life is lived. We share in appreciation of memories of how we have lived life, where we have done so, and the composite of our experience lives on.

With over 20 solo shows in the United States and Europe, this will be his first in Los Angeles. His work, his technique and his viewpoint bring together a way of seeing that will inspire; maybe you too will recall a fond memory or two. Don’t miss the opportunity. Michael Sherman’s oil paintings can be seen from July 12th-August 5th at Little Bird Gallery in Atwater Village.