About Ferrari Sheppard
Blurring the lines between abstraction and figuration, the contemporary artist Ferrari Sheppard creates mid to large-scale paintings delving deeply into the collective consciousness of humanity. The Los Angeles based artist was born in Chicago and lived in various countries in Africa. His paintings are influenced by memories, dreams and lived experience, evoking a sense of nostalgia.
Sheppard’s approach to figuration heralds a new visual language, with large acrylic, charcoal, and 24k gold on canvas conveying movement and emotion through his confident brushstrokes and distinctive use of color. His abstract practice brings forth irregularities in each work giving the viewer a sense of activity and excitement. Evocative titles are used in a poetic manner to reflect deeper meanings and cultural references. The abstracted figures are created with an intuitive balance between subtle idiosyncrasies and intentional opacity, holding space for the complexity and expansiveness within each individual being.
Sheppard often incorporates gold leaf adding an iconographical effect throughout his work, catching light and accentuating presence within in his work. As writer Kristina Kay Robinson notes: “In Bond, we behold a Black Madonna and her golden child. The charcoal and gold work together as earthly material creating a texture and dimension to the visual universe presented. Again, we are reminded of the fierce power of love to transform and preserve the human soul through the ebb and flow of time and circumstance. Sheppard’s paintings are substantial in size, giving room for their subject matter to expand and make a home for the largeness of their narratives and implications. This work reflects profoundly on the emotional and intellectual interiority of the figures portrayed. It grapples with the fates of African and Indigenous peoples all over the world and is a welcome and necessary addition to the galaxy of contemporary art.”
Biography
Born in Chicago, U.S., 1983
Lives and works in Los Angeles, LA
EDUCATION
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, (2004)
Merit Award and Presidential Scholarship, (2004)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Crucible, MASSIMO DE CARLO, Museum of Villa Torlonia, Rome, Italy (2023)
Portal Study, MASSIMO DE CARLO, Frieze Los Angeles, CA (2023)
TREMENDOUS, MASSIMO DE CARLO, London, (2022)
Together, MASSIMO DE CARLO Pièce Unique, Paris, (2022)
Art Basel, MASSIMO DE CARLO, Switzerland, (2022)
TEFAF, MASSIMO DE CARLO, New York, NY, (2022)
Dark Bodies Bright Crest, MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels Belgium, (2021)
Positions of Power, UTA ARTIST SPACE, Beverly Hills, CA, (2021)
Heroines of Innocence, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, (2020)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
La Vie en Rose, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago, IL, (2022)
Interscope Reimagined, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, (2022)
Where to begin…, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Paris, FR, (2021)
Art Basel, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Miami Beach, FL, (2021)
Black Voices/Black Microcosm, CF HILL, Stockholm, Sweden, (2020)
MoAD Benefit Auction, San Francisco, CA, 2020
Drawn Together, Unit London, London (2020)
Pigment International, “Miami Reveal” Miami, FL, (2018)
LECTURES
Guest Lecturer, Harvard University, (2015)
Guest Lecturer, Concordia University , (2015)
Guest Lecturer, University of Minnesota , (2015)
Guest Lecturer, Ottawa University, (2015)
Guest Speaker, African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, (2014)
Lead photo by Maya Seas