Accola Griefen at the Downtown Fair

Featuring Sheba Sharrow - BOOTH DT42

May 8-11, 2014
at Downtown Armory - 68 Lexington Ave

Downtown Armory
68 Lexington Avenue at
25th Street New York City
BOOTH DT42

For more details and directions see:
http://www.downtownfair.com/

Sheba Sharrow (1926 – 2006) was born in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrants. In 1927 the family moved to Chicago, where Sharrow received her art education. As a child during the Depression, Sharrow frequently visited the Art Institute of Chicago where she later enrolled as a student.  Nancy Spero and Leon Golub were among Sharrow’s fellow students. The two teachers at the Institute who most impacted Sharrow’s artistic education were Boris Anisfeld and Joseph Hirsch. Sharrow graduated in 1948. She returned to school in 1962 and earned her MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1968.                                            

From the beginning, Sharrow’s work exhibited an attention to the power of the expressive paint surfaces.  At the same time, the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, the Feminism Movement and the war in Vietnam all left her with a sense of urgency and indignation.  By 1979 Sharrow began her return to the exquisite, poetic figuration, which became her argot.  Her later work is widely recognized for its demanding content, unapologetically fueled by social conscience. Sharrow worked with full vigor into her eightieth year, six months before her death in 2006.

Sheba Sharrow exhibited steadily over the course of her career, winning many awards including those from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Councils on the Arts. She was also a three time Joan Mitchell Foundation Nominee and a long-time Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work is represented in institutional, corporate and private collections including Philips Art Collection, Franklin & Marshall College, Steelcase Corporation, Armstrong World Industries, Cigna Corporation of America, Citibank of New York, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Millersville University, Rite Aid Corporation and the Jersey City Museum, among others.