b. 1950 Toronto, Canada
d. 2023 Toronto, Canada
Throughout the span of his nearly 50 year career, Canadian artist Tony Scherman created impassioned encaustic paintings rife with dreamy symbolism, romantic melancholia, and mystifying intensity. Through richly textured canvasses imbued with pigment and wax, Scherman explored the discrete lives of both historic and mythic figures entangled in fiery, overlying brushstrokes. His portraiture radiates with a sense of severe urgency, as characters often lock eyes with the viewer, baring vulnerability with a knowing wink of secrets still sealed away. Subjects double as contemporary icons of rebellion and tragic misunderstanding, where pop culture references converge with age-old fables and stories of antiquity. Scherman’s still life and animal paintings are likewise embellished with a complicated poignancy— lonesome flowers and crowded platters represent our own sublime anguish in their piercing stoicism. Across his work, light and shadow energetically slash the picture plane, casting figures and objects in a singular, emotive drama.
Tony Scherman was born in Toronto, Canada in 1950. He received his MA from the Royal College of Art in London in 1974. Over his career, he exhibited in dozens of solo exhibitions in North America, Europe, and Asia. Selected group exhibitions include those at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and several Canadian museums. His work is held in dozens of public and private collections in North America and Europe such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Los Angeles County Museum, The Denver Art Museum, The High Museum, and the Musée de l’Art Contermporain in Montréal. His work was featured in The New York Times, Art in America, Art Papers, Art Press, and American Art Collector.
Winston Wächter Fine Art is the U.S. representation of the Estate of Tony Scherman.
