Since receiving his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas in 2006, Howard Sherman has been leading a new generation of bombastic contemporary painters in the Texas art world. Sherman’s typically human-scale canvases carry traces of his background in cartooning, offsetting the loud, raw power of his aggressive paint strokes with a playful sense of humor. His smaller works on paper show an intuitive use of material in a distilled yet assertive manner.
The large paintings facilitate the immense physicality within Sherman’s work, while leaving space for his keen sense of formal resolution. The frenetic and muscular heft of the work is balanced with a measured precision and a thoughtful integration of a number of art historical styles. Sherman’s cartoonish figuration complements his bold use of abstract mark making, embedding into the canvases what could be read as portraits, punch lines or poems. He is constantly refining his visual and conceptual vocabulary, experimenting with sculptural surfaces and collage.