Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
June 4–November 27, 2011
Steven Shearer has been selected to represent Canada in the 54th International Art Exhibition, with the exhibition Steven Shearer: Exhume to Consume.
This solo exhibition includes a selection of Steven Shearer’s paintings, drawings and sculptures, featuring new and never-before-seen works, which draw from diverse influences such as art history, popular culture and vernacular architecture.
Shearer also created a nine-meter-high free-standing mural in response to the architecture of the adjacent British and German Pavilions. The mural is part of an alternate entrance to the Pavilion via a tool shed-like structure, one of Shearer’s signature motifs. This monumental facade features a new poem written by the artist, drawing from the vocabulary of Black and Death metal music, which conjures the sublime, nihilistic power of language, and seeks to provoke a visceral response in viewers.
Inside the Pavilion, the exhibition comprises 12 paintings, featuring several of Shearer’s most recent works, including The Fauves, where the artist experiments with a variety of new techniques and explores the theme of the artist and his muse. The exhibition also includes 81 drawings, the majority of which have never previously been displayed. In addition, the show features one sculpture and a unique book of 127 poems.
Read more at e-flux.
Learn more at La Biennale di Venezia.