sharilyn Neidhardt

Sharilyn Neidhardt draws on her training as a photojournalist and as a paintmaker to create images of urban living, nature, celebrity, and human conflict. She grew up in southern California but moved to Brooklyn more than two decades ago. Ms Neidhardt maintains a studio at Brooklyn Fireproof, plays a mean game of chess, and speaks only a little German. Ms Neidhardt's work rests on an inexhaustible visual curiosity. She began her artistic journey making copies of master paintings and moved on to using her own photographs as a foundation. As she's pushed the bounds of her photography into more and more experimental places, the visual complexity of her work has increased. Supporting and collaborating with other artists has always been at the core of Ms Neidhardt's practice. She is a founding member of the transcender art community which meets monthly in Manhattan. Her collaborative project with artist Lisa Levy has been featured in art fairs and downtown galleries. "Art makes a space for me. In my studio, I am creative and worthless, I am powerful and I am pathetic, I am a still point in a turning world even as I am a swirl of emotion and ideas. Crouched and ready, with a paintbrush clutched in my fist smeared with oily mud, I wait for the touch of the divine. People can lie to me and this pale world can disappoint but images always tell the truth. The truth always wins."