n a o m i
s h e r s t y
STATEMENT
Through various forms of visual media, I chart and map my experience to explore desire as well as the construction of identity and its relation to the past, home, geography, social classes, and power.
The intensity of lower-class, male-dominated spaces, the allure and danger of southern environments, and the ramifications of being an outsider to family and local culture are intrinsic to my history and provide fruitful visual metaphors for recursive issues surrounding loss, neglect, sexuality, and survival.
I am intimately aware of how these issues affect a woman’s understanding, definition, and perception of self. It is in this respect that my work explores control, including the power structures found in intimate and familial relationships, distortions of the female self-image, and the boundaries and intersections that exist between acceptance, love, and desire.
Motivating my work are questions such as: What is nurtured? What is neglected? What is acceptable? What is taboo? What is safe? What is dangerous? What is lost? What remains?
BIO
Naomi Shersty has been storytelling through words and pictures for as long as she can remember. Her projects take the form of photographs, drawings, text, videos, films, installations, curation, and episodes on a community FM radio station.
Shersty's multimedia artwork has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as the New Mexico Museum of Art (Santa Fe), Newspace Center for Photography (Portland, Oregon) and Move Gallery (Tokyo, Japan). Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications including, Frontiers: Journal of Women Studies (University of Nebraska Press), Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice (Routledge), and Learning to Love You More (Prestel Publishing). She is deeply involved in multiple community projects through non-profit galleries and organizations such as Riverwest Radio, Girls Rock Milwaukee, and the Harambee Great Neighborhood Initiative. In 2018, she initiated an arts summer camp experience for adults, Moonlight Retreat.
Shersty received her BFA from the University of Florida, and her MFA from the University of New Mexico. She lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
For CV, please email nshersty@gmail.com
LINKS:
Moonlight Retreat
https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Retreat-WI-246368819624616/?ref=br_rsr
A conversation between myself and artist, Ryn Wilson:
http://pelicanbomb.com/art-review/2015/artists-in-conversation-ryn-wilson-and-naomi-shersty
Featured artist on Lenscratch:
http://lenscratch.com/2016/01/naomi-shersty-the-states-project-wisconsin-6/
Video blurb(mildly embarrassing) on Reframing Photography:
http://www.reframingphotography.com/artists/naomi-shersty
¡Broadcast! on Riverwest Radio:
https://soundcloud.com/riverwestradio/sets/broadcast