Cindy Sherman

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2012

I took in the Cindy Sherman photography exhibit this weekend. Cindy has done self-portraits of one sort or another for the last 35 years. One might think that this was a narcissistic conceit, a concept would lead to a sameness. The opposite is true. After seeing over one hundred and fifty portraits, many larger than life-size, I was left with the strange sensation that she could be standing right next to me and I wouldn’t be able to recognize her at all.

Sherman's work has her assuming many personas. Her early work looked as if they were stills from European art films—plotless, with narratives supplied by the viewer’s imagination. Later works explored classical art, while the newest work brought feminine stereotypes to uncomfortable heights—simultaneously fetishtic and mundane.

Highly recommended for those readers in the Minneapolis area.

Through February 17, 2013.