Shari Mendelson
Shari Mendelson
Powerade Musician with Long Sleeves, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
17 1/2 x 7 x 6 inches
(44.5 x 17.8 x 15.2 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9151)
Shari Mendelson
Seated Sphinx, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
13 x 6 x 7 inches
(33 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9102)
Shari Mendelson
Bearded Man on Ziggurat, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
23 x 12 x 12 inches
(58.4 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9150)
Shari Mendelson
Stag with Cup, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
15 1/2 x 4 x 10 inches
(39.4 x 10.2 x 25.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9016)
Shari Mendelson
The Queen and I, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
18 x 8 1/2 x 11 inches
(45.7 x 21.6 x 27.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9023)
Shari Mendelson
Greetings and Offerings, 2019
repurposed plastic, hot glue, resin and mica
18.5 x 7 x 13.5 inches
(47 x 17.8 x 34.3 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9132)
Shari Mendelson
Blue Ibex on Stand, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
19 x 13 1/2 x 10 inches
(48.3 x 34.3 x 25.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9152)
Shari Mendelson
Praying Lotus Woman, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
17 x 10 x 11 inches
(43.2 x 25.4 x 27.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9154)
Shari Mendelson
Double Deer, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
16 1/2 x 4 x 14 inches
(41.9 x 10.2 x 35.6 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9017)
Shari Mendelson
Bearded Man with Dog, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
16 x 8 x 9 inches
(40.6 x 20.3 x 22.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9153)
Shari Mendelson
Head Vessel with Blue Eyes and Round Earrings, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
20 1/2 x 8 x 11 inches
(52.1 x 20.3 x 27.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9022)
Shari Mendelson
Animal with Large Antler Handles, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
14 x 4 x 13 inches
(35.6 x 10.2 x 33 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9015)
Shari Mendelson
Supplicant with Small Hands, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
18 x 5.5 x 4 inches
(45.7 x 14 x 10.2 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9148)
Shari Mendelson
Girl in Green Dress with Vessel, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
18 x 5 x 4 inches
(45.7 x 12.7 x 10.2 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9021)
Shari Mendelson
Girl with Bull and Falcon, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
19 1/2 x 10 x 10 inches
(49.5 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9030)
Shari Mendelson
Kneeling Powerade Goat Man, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
10 1/2 x 5 x 10 1/2 inches
(26.7 x 12.7 x 26.7 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9149)
Shari Mendelson
Crouching Sphinx 2, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
9 x 4 x 11 inches
(22.9 x 10.2 x 27.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9155)
Shari Mendelson
Small Pink and Gold Vessel with Drawn Net, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
8 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
(21 x 11.4 x 6.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9147)
Shari Mendelson
White/Blue Vessel with Semi-Circles, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
9 3/4 x 4 x 2 3/4 inches
(24.8 x 10.2 x 7 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9156)
Shari Mendelson
Horse Askos, 2018
repurposed plastic and mixed media
10 1/2 x 3 x 8 inches
(26.7 x 7.6 x 20.3 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9027)
Shari Mendelson
Light Green Vessel with Blue Spots, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
10 1/4 x 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
(26 x 8.9 x 8.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9143)
Shari Mendelson
Small Light Green Vessel with Traces of Blue Net, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
7 1/2 x 5 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches
(19.1 x 13.3 x 6.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9142)
Shari Mendelson
Horse and Rider for Bill Traylor, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
12 1/2 x 3 x 10 inches
(31.8 x 7.6 x 25.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9101)
Shari Mendelson
Goblet with Blue Rings, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
8 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches
(21 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9144)
Shari Mendelson
Fertility Figure in Scallop Skirt, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
12 1/2 x 4 x 3 inches
(31.8 x 10.2 x 7.6 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9020)
Shari Mendelson
Grey Green Vessel with Looping Side Trails, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
10 x 4 x 3 1/2 inches
(25.4 x 10.2 x 8.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9146)
Shari Mendelson
Figure with Bear Mask, 2019
repurposed plastic and mixed media
14 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
(36.8 x 14 x 8.9 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9019)
Shari Mendelson
Light Blue Motts Vessel, 2020
repurposed plastic and mixed media
13 x 5 1/2 x 5 inches
(33 x 14 x 12.7 cm)
(Inv. No. SMN9141)
Shari Mendelson
The Queen and I, 2019
repurposed plastic, hot glue, resin, acrylic polymer and mica
18 x 8 1/2 x 11 inches
(Inv. No. SMN9023)
Shari Mendelson
Animals, Idols and Us
October 29 to December 5, 2020
Tibor de Nagy is pleased to present Shari Mendelson - Animals, Idols and Us. The exhibition, originally scheduled for March, will be the artist’s first at the gallery
Animals, Idols and Us will be comprised of 25 sculptures all made in the last two years. Mendelson creates these works out of ordinary plastic beverage bottles which she collects in and around her Brooklyn studio. Using the unique aspects of each brand’s color, shape and patterning, she recycles this all-too-common product into her sculptural objects. This body of work draws on ancient history, and her many visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With her process and subject matter, the artist bridges civilizations and creates a composite of the present and the remote past. These works come out of her close observations of ancient glass, terra cotta vessels, antique human and animal forms from Roman, Cypriot, Egyptian, Chinese and Islamic traditions. She is especially interested in how everyday life is presented, how the utilitarian and the spiritual aspects interact - how we glimpse everyday life from burial objects placed in tombs and how a deity, animal and vessel can coexist in the same object.
Mendelson has long been an artist focused on materials. In her decades as a practicing artist, she has worked with industrial plastic, metal and jewelry. In this current body of work hot glue, acrylic polymers, resin and mica powders are used to bind the found plastic and alter the surface texture and color. The contemporary nature of her medium is never entirely hidden and an expiration date or other markers of modern life can make an appearance. The artist describes her approach as folllows: I make the pieces starting with a drawing or a photograph of an ancient work but as I'm making them, things change and they go off in a direction of their own. I look to the originals for guidance but mainly I'm trying to figure out how to build an interesting form and surface using found convex and concave plastic bits.
Shari Mendelson (b. 1961) is based in Brooklyn and Upstate New York. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including the recent solo exhibition Glasslike at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, curated by Elizabeth Essner, and Shari Mendelson: Amphorae and Apparitions at the Hunterdon Art Museum. She is currently in the group exhibition Re-materialize at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, curated by Heather Gibson Moqtaderi. The artist has received four New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships, and is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. Mendelson received her MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 1986 and is a lecturer at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan.
