Meet Elizabeth
Bay Area artist Elizabeth Sher is Professor Emeritus of Art at the CCA in San Francisco where she taught Painting and Media Arts. Starting in fine art prints and oil painting, Sher moved into 16 mm film and mixed media works. Currently working in digitally mixed media on canvas, paper, & metal, she utilizes paint & pixels with traditional & new media. She intertwines these with a strong basis of formal discourse & a quirky sense of popular culture blended with insightful honesty and humor.
“Humor, feminist consciousness, and a love of nature and the every day are reflected in Sher’s work. Nature and technology vie for the upper hand. Combining her technological skill with the quickness, fluidity, and ease of movement in hand-drawn line and paint, she brings together elemental life and our complex modern world.” - Cheryl Meeker
Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Public collections include The San Francisco Museum of Art, The Fine Arts Museums of California, the San Jose Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum of California, BAM/PFA, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S. Embassy Collection, and private and corporate collections. Sher is currently a member of Mercury 20 Gallery in Oakland, CA.
To learn about Elizabeth’s films visit ivstudios.com
Recent Exhibitions
2026 Paper, ARC-SF, San Francisco, CA June 20-July 13 Juried
2026 Succulents, Spirals and Blooms, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakand, CA May 8-June 13
2026 Metallica, Wonderland Pizzeria, Monte Rio, CA May 22-Nov 15
2025-6 Word Play, ARC SF, Nov. 15 - Jan 10 Juried, Catalog
2025 What are You Worried About? RCCD Gallery, Emeryville, CA Nov. 8-30
2025 Elemental, SF StartUp Fair, San Francisco, CA Apr 18-20 invited
2025 Purple, Grayloft Gallery, Oakland, CA, apr 12-May 11 (juried)
2025 Traces of Change, SPAACES Gallery, Sarasota, FL Oct 3-Nov 15
2025 What Cannot be Spoken, Gallery Route One, CA Jan 11- Feb 15 Juried
2025 Pint SIze 3, Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA Sept 18-Nov 1 Juried
2025 Sensing Place, Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland, CA Sept 29-Nov 4
2025 Art for the Winter Solstice: Connecting in Community, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA Nov. 21 - Dec. 20,
2025 Bound, Unbound, Rebound, Mercury 20 Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Catalog
Join Elizabeth Sher for a walk through video of the show. And for a laugh watch It’s In The Bag!
Past Exhibitions
2024 ART/FWD Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Novato, CA Juried2024 Urban Tides, Voss Gallery, San Francisco, CA juried
2023 Good Coffee, Bad News, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA, solo exhibition
2023 Constructed Environments, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA
2022 CODEX 2022 International Book Fair, Richmond CA juried, catalog
2022 8 Bridges – 2022, online exhibition, video discussion
2022 Yellow, Grayloft Gallery, Oakland, CA juried
2021 The Politics of Geometry/The Geometry of Politics, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland
2021 Surreality, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA, video, interactive online catalog
2020 The Meaning of Green, Grayloft Gallery, Oakland, CA juried show
2020 Applied Digital, Applied Contemporary Gallery, Oakland, CA
2020 Sanctuary, Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA juror Rene de Guzman
2020 This Is Just To Say, Gallery Route One, Stinson Beach, CA Juror Amy Spencer, Exhibitions Director, Richmond Art Center, Merit Award
2019-2020 Truth/Dare Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA
2020 Cedar Street Gallery, Berkeley, CA Solo Exhibition
2019 Diaspora Voiced, Rhythmix Cultural Center, Alameda, CA, curated by Michelle Nye, jury selection
2019 Morocco Seen and Unseen: Views from an Outsider, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA Solo Exhibition
2019 CODEX VII, International Book Exhibition, Craneway Pavillion, Richmond, CA
2019 Black and White with Just a Touch of Color, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, CA juried
2018 StartUp Fair, San Francisco, CA
2018 Evolving/Revolving, Marianne Chapel Projects, Sarasota, FL solo exhibition
2018 Icelandscapes, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA, solo exhibition, brochure
2018 Bibliophoria, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sevastopol, CA jury selection
2018 Works on Paper, LIGF juried by Kim Conaty, curator print & drawings, Whitney Museum of Art, NY, NY
2016-17 Nothing Extraneous, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA Artist Talk
2016 Arising Project, Reykjavik Museum, Iceland
2016 Art is a Living Thing, Aratoi Museum, Masterton, New Zealand. Juried
2016 Crossing the Digital Divide, Los Medanos College, CA, solo exhibition, catalog.
2015 Ten Years of Artist Books curated by Donna Seager, Brooklyn Central Library, NY catalog
2015 CODEX V, International Book Exhibition, Craneway Pavillion, Richmond, CA
2015 Passages, Verum Ultimum Galery, Portland, OR Jury Selection
2015 Transitions, Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA. Jury Selection
2014 Rauchenberg: Collecting and Connecting, Basher Museum of Art, Duke University, North Carolina online catalog
2014 Art of the Digital, San Francisco State University Gallery, CA
2013 Art in a Time of Climatological Catastrophes, WEAD, China Brotsky Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA juried by Suzann Boettger
Lectures & Workshops
2023 Artists Exchange, Gallery Route One, Stinson Beach, CA online
2023 Lecture and poetry reading with Maw Shein Win Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA
2021 Building Bridges – Breaking Barriers, online exhibit, video panel
2018 Melting Point, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA, performance w poet Maw Shein Winn
2011 Juror, The Art of the Line, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, CA
2013 BELLA BELLA film screening, part of Bella Feldman 50 year retrospective, RAC, Richmond, CA panel moderated by DeWitt Cheng
Awards & Residences
2023 Selected Artist, Blue Baroque, Lecce, Italy
2018 Selected Artist, Green Olive Arts, Tetouan, Morocco
2016 & 2012 Selected Artist Gullkistan Residency for Creative People, Iceland
2014 Studi D’arte Nel Castelio, Aragonese, Castle, BAU Institute, Otranto, Italy, fellow
2014 Fleishakker Grant for Film
2013 2 artist books included in 500 Handmade Books Vol 2, Lark Publishers, juried by Julie Chen
2012 Roy Dean Film Grant 1st Place Winner
2011 Awarded Emeritus Status, California College of the Arts
2010 Artist Stipend Winner Residency, Can Serrat, Barcelona, Spain
2010 Travel Grant, California College of the Arts – New Pacific Studios, New Zealand
2009 Berkeley City Public Art Honoree
2008 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR 2008 Digital Visions, Ft. Wayne, IN Jury Prize 2008 Residency New Pacific Studio, New Zealand Juried, Firar Prize
2008 Faculty Development Grant, California College of the Arts
Film grants include National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, Western Regional Media Arts Fellowship Fund, The Zellerbach Family Fund. Film festivals include The Berlin Short Film Festival, Germany; Edinburgh Film Festival, Scotland; San Francisco International Film Festival; New York Independent Film Festival.
Selected Permanent Collections
Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Berkeley, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, CA
The Austin Museum of Art, TX
De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, CA
The Hechinger Collection, Washington, DC
The Hunt Collection for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie-Mellon University,
The Oakland Museum of California
Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, NV
The Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
United States Information Agency Embassy Collection, State Department, Wash., DC
and many private collections nationwide