Steven Shearer

Described by artist and curator Matthew Higgs in a 2002 Artforum article as the "bastard offspring of the Photo-Conceptualists," Canadian artist Steven Shearer draws on a personal archive comprised of thousands of found images—culled from magazines, books, and websites—to create works that explore the margins of youth culture. Probing themes of adolescent rebellion, teenage subcultures, fandom, and the suburban vernacular, Shearer often merges lowbrow content, such as heavy metal lyrics and images of forgotten teen idols ('70s star Leif Garrett is a recurring figure), with art-historical references, as in paintings depicting long-haired adolescent males in a style reminiscent of the 19-century Symbolist painter Edvard Munch.

Shearer's work, which has taken the form of paintings, drawings, photo-based collages, and installations, has been exhibited extensively throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 2011, he represented Canada at the 54th Venice Biennale. Responding to the monumental architecture of the neighboring British and German pavilions, Shearer humorously transformed Canada's pavilion by constructing a new entrance resembling the typical suburban tool shed and toping it with the large-scale mural Poem for Venice, a text-based work drawing on the violence and obscenity of black metal lyrics.

In addition to the Biennale, Shearer has been included in notable exhibitions including solo shows at the Power Plant in Toronto; Ikon Gallery in Birmingham; and Amsterdam's De Appel Center for Contemporary Art. He also received the two-person exhibition Double Album with Daniel Guzman at New York's New Museum in 2008, as well as group exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco, the Palais de Tokyo, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Rubell Family Collection in Miami.