Kelly Sherman: Success & Happiness

Exhibition View

A  more accurate title to this show, Success & Happiness might actually be,

Success & Happiness?  

In fact, the work in this exhibition poses for me more questions than it answers:  Which sofa?  Which dress?  Which career?  Which partner?

This work is a departure for me as an artist. I found the process mysterious this time, a bit perplexing, and a bit of a surprise. It draws on the personal, but explores a culturally and universally American experience:   the experience of buying, selling and manufacturing things (as Say Anything’s Lloyd Dobler would put it). I question how these activities influence our culture, our sense of identity, and our prospects at achieving a sense of success and happiness.

There are moments when this endeavor strikes me as serious and earnest, and others where it is absolutely absurd and nonsensical. One moment I’m longing to answer life’s vital questions, the next I’m confronted with the Cinderella fantasy with a dress. As narrow and absurd as these fantasies might be, I find them captivating. For me, this makes them all the more unsettling.

–Kelly Sherman, 2009