Vancouver artist chosen for Venice Biennale
Steven Shearer praised for 'complex and insightful' works
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 | 3:31 PM ET
CBC News
Steven Shearer's Geometric Mechanotherapy Cell for Harmonic Alignment of Movements and Relations, 2007-2008, is made of polished plastic, metal bolts, black paint, speakers, transducers and amplifiers. An exhibit of the Vancouver artist's work will represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2011. (National Gallery of Canada) Vancouver artist Steven Shearer has been chosen to represent Canada at the 54th Venice Biennale.
The international art extravaganza, which runs in alternate years, features works from more than 75 countries and next takes place from June 4 to Nov. 27, 2011.
A selection committee of senior contemporary-art curators from across the country, organized by the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, made the selection.
The Vancouver artist was lauded for his "intelligence and originality."
"Under its pop cultural surface, Steven Shearer's work is surprisingly complex and insightful," National Gallery of Canada director and CEO Marc Mayer said in a statement on Tuesday.
"By showing us aspects of popular culture anachronistically, and from so many different points of view, he exposes the false hierarchy of high and low art and prompts us to consider the more interesting differences between the cultural industries and the art world."
Shearer's work is described as an examination of subcultures and how they disseminate through online message boards, fanzines and personal websites.
His pieces include paintings, sculptures, photographic compilations and text-based works.
The artist is currently compiling a massive project, archiving thousands of images and text culled from songs and magazines and captured from the internet.
Born in New Westminster, B.C., in 1968, Shearer attended the Emily Carr College of Art & Design in Vancouver.
He has exhibited his works far and wide, including solo shows in Toronto, Calgary, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Vancouver.
The National Gallery's senior curator of contemporary art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, will be in charge of organizing the exhibit.
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