Steven Shearer

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Steven Shearer, “Sleep II,” 2015

ink on canvas; framed, 9.5′ x 22.7′ (edition 1 of 3; courtesy of Galerie Eva Presenhuber and David Zwirner)

A major survey of Steven Shearer’s work, on view at the Polygon Gallery until Feb. 13, is the Vancouver artist’s first solo show in his hometown since 2007. Shearer is an acclaimed artist with a massive international draw, having represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2011. His interdisciplinary work references an extensive image archive, compiled in a 19-volume compendium on display in the Polygon – a collection of ephemeral pictures of 20th century life that appear in big and small ways across his work. 

The spirit of the exhibition is carried through Shearer’s fastidious devotion to detail. He began collecting found images from a range of sources in 1992, after graduating from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. In each of the 40-plus works on view, these transient images are variously blown up as singular photographs, recomposed as drawings or turned into subjects for paintings. They also provided an instructional model for a large-scale motorized sculpture constructed of intricately woven and enmeshed PVC pipes. 

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Steven Shearer, “Geometric Mechanotherapy Cell for Harmonic Alignment of Movements and Relations,” 2007-2008

polished ABS plastic, bolts and acoustic equipment, 9.1′ x 9.1′ x 9.1′ (© Steven Shearer; courtesy of National Gallery of Canada, Galerie Eva Presenhuber and David Zwirner)

The self-titled exhibition functions as a kind of multi-volume dictionary of source material that shows the artist’s process as he follows an idea from inspiration to execution. This is well demonstrated by the forms that his sculpture takes within the exhibition. As you enter, the gigantic Geometric Mechanotherapy Cell for Harmonic Alignment of Movements and Relations vibrates and rumbles. Shearer originally found the structure, intended as a childhood plaything, in a craft magazine from the 1970s. He endeavoured to recreate it, beginning in 2007 with a miniature model in polished copper named Geometric Healing Cell for Youth and expanding to the larger mechanized version. In some works, as in this series, one can locate the originating image in Shearer’s books, and track his impulse as he expands and complicates it through formal experimentation.  

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Steven Shearer, “Dogpile,” 2019

acrylic and ink on poly canvas, 7.2′ x 10.8′ x 2″ (varied edition 2 of 2; © Steven Shearer; courtesy of the Audain Art Museum Collection, Galerie Eva Presenhuber and David Zwirner)

Shearer’s meticulous care for his source material is brandished as a kind of medium in the work. I see this in his Fauvist-style paintings, which devotionally reference historical styles, as well as in his humorous photo collages, such as Dogpile, which assembles a mountain of images of pets, kids, grandmas and toys, tinged with the soft cola-coloured glow of old photographs. 

Shearer’s exhibition is fascinating precisely for his archive. He dreams so many forms for his reference materials, demonstrating a deep consideration for the life of the image and the ways that these poorer materials can accumulate value. 

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Steven Shearer, “The Collector’s Visit,” 2019

oil on linen over panel and artist’s frame, 19.5″ x 22″ (© Steven Shearer; courtesy of Galerie Eva Presenhuber and David Zwirner)

On the other hand, following the Polygon’s last exhibition, Interior Infinite, an astute reflection on race, gender and identity curated by Justin Ramsey, and featuring some of the world’s most relevant contemporary artists, I question whether Shearer’s work is the art we need for these times. His image archive appears to be drawn from North American and European reference points that ruminate on masculinity, youth culture and iconography. In general, these are fragments of a history that is typically white. Hung against a backdrop of climate collapse, an unending pandemic and constant racial emergency, his works present as escapist, at best. 

This is not to say all art should be suffused with politics, nor should Shearer’s skill as an artist be overlooked. I venture to say that Shearer makes perfect art, yet his work is developed from a visual culture that may now only exist in his reference books. ■  

Steven Shearer on view at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver from Nov. 20, 2021, to Feb. 13, 2022.

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