STEP UP GALLERY NEWS RELEASE
Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library is hosting “Michael Sharber: Painting Survey 2007 to 2023” that runs through March 6.
Michael Sharber is a painter and sculptor who’s lived in New Mexico for many years. He says, as a young man, he fell in love with the big sky and ever-changing light. He keys off this dramatic landscape to formulate the form, color and inspiration for his art.
Born in Tennessee, Sharber has degrees in painting and sculpture from Middle Tennessee State University and a graduate degree in sculpture from the University of Cincinnati. From there he moved to the Santa Fe area where his creative work began.
“I often work with Venetian plaster, acrylic paints and drawing tools, and sometimes I’ll make a sculptural board to paint on. My sculpture is also a mixture of media including iron, bronze, stone and ceramic. Ancient written languages fascinate me. I often seek out the architecture of everyday objects that exist just below the surface of commonly observed reality,” Sharber says. “An historical connection between man and myth interests me as well. I study the symbolic forms this relationship has produced, where the unknown is brought into a relationship with the known.”
This exhibit Michael Sharber: Painting Survey 2007 – 2023 features a 16-year selection of Sharber’s paintings and sculpture. Those completed in 2007-08 are inspired by architectural floorplans derived from archaeological reports on the prehistoric cultural group known as the Hohokam. Alongside these works are paintings interpretive of Cascajal Text, the earliest written language yet found in the Americas. Both these sources of inspiration have continued to influence Sharber’s work even as it has moved toward more pure abstraction after 2020, also featured in this exhibit.
Photographs of the art in this exhibit, along with prices can be found online. Purchasing art from this exhibit can be accomplished through the artist directly. Contact information will be provided online and at the gallery. Step Up Gallery is located on the top level of Mesa Public Library, 2400 Central Avenue in the heart of the Los Alamos Historic District. The gallery is open the same hours as Mesa Public Library: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday –Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday; and 1-5 p.m., Sunday.