Biography

Scherer’s paintings of interiors are reimagined depictions of museums or gilded homes displaying historic collections. After studying a collection online, Scherer selects her favorite paintings and sculptures from each museum. The painted rooms, subtly manipulated, are bursting with these masterworks painstakingly recreated in miniature form, and arranged floor-to-ceiling in a Salon-style installation recalling 18th century exhibitions. Ordinarily closed closets and cabinets are open, and hallways are seemingly endless. Informed by internet searches, books on interiors, and imagination, Scherer lovingly scrutinizes a museum collection and space by envisioning it anew. Now a version of the original. The excess of imagery challenges the viewer’s relationship to space, memory, and objects. Embracing a contemporary interest in the ways in which objects are experienced - the artist has never visited some of the places depicted - Scherer hints at the current image-saturated culture that social media forces upon us. An intersection of art history and the modern world. Gretchen Scherer (b. 1979, Indianapolis, IN) received a BFA from The University of Illinois at Chicago, IL and a MFA from Hunter College, NY. Residencies include Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting, ME and Vermont Studio Center. Recent group exhibitions include Tillou Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY and Booth Gallery, NY. Scherer’s work was selected by Jerry Saltz of New York Magazine for the upcoming New American Paintings Northeast Edition (2020). The artists’ first solo exhibition was at Monya Rowe Gallery in 2020. Scherer lives and works in Brooklyn, NY