Bay Area artist and filmmaker Elizabeth Sher is Professor Emeritus of Art at the CCA in San Francisco and Oakland where she taught Painting and Media Arts. 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 canvas, paper and metal she passes freely between static and moving images, paint and pixels, traditional and new media. She mixes these with a strong basis of formal discourse and a quirky sense of popular culture blended with insightful honesty and humor.
“My creative output is an attempt to examine aspects of perception: what is seen, the interaction of sight and memory, the construction of narrative and how this process informs our understanding of the world.” -Sher
Her artworks have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Public collections include The San Francisco Museum of Art, The Fine Arts Museums of California, the San Jose Museums of Art, The Oakland Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S. Embassy Collection and private and corporate collections.
“As a filmmaker, my framing Is essential to the composition of each shot and sequence – but more generally, my entire creative practice could be summed up as an ongoing process of framing/editing. I consider the implicit cultural and historical frames beyond the physical borders and how we receive our sensory impressions.” -Sher
Sher’s films have earned grants, won national festival awards, aired on PBS and cable networks from San Francisco to New York, from Australia to Portugal and Israel. She is the winner of the 2014 Fleishhacker Small Film Grant and the 2012 Roy Dean Grant for Film. Her 2014 documentary PENNY, won First Place Audience Award at the Intendence Film Festival, Denver, CO; and a Certificate of Merit at Rochester International Film and Video Festival. Other festivals include Mill Valley Film Festival, CA; Berlin Short Film Festival, Germany; Edinburgh Film Festival, Scotland; San Francisco International Film Festival; NY Independent Film Festival; Black Film Festival, Dallas, TX; and Baltimore Women’s Film Festival, MD.
Younger, Thinner, Smoother puts the current plastic surgery craze into a social and historical context. When 80 year olds look like 60 year olds and 60 year olds look like 40 year olds, what will it mean to be old and what will old look like? Sher's personal journey leads to candid interviews with men and women who have been "nipped and tucked" (and their doctors) to decide should she or shouldn't she?
"Veteran documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Sher deftly skewers American's obsession with cosmetic surgery....Her ability to poke fun at society at her own expense is, well, eye-opening. Highly recommended and sure to be popular." A. Conti, Video Librarian (reviewing Sher’s documentary Younger, Thinner, Smoother)
