Robert Sherman

Robert was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he moved to New York City and became part of the experimental theatre scene in the 1960’s, performing with the Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble.

Feeling a need to ground himself by working with his hands, Robert began exploring clay with the influential clay artist Paulus Berensohn, and originated his own mask-making technique, “Acting in Clay.” With slabs of wet clay on his face, he clawed, pinched and pulled the clay to bring his “inside faces” outside.  Conducting mask-making workshops at over 100 museums, universities and craft centers throughout the US, Robert encouraged students of all ages to “unmask” through this unique experience. He was the recipient of artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the CETA Artist Project (NYC).

The primal quality of his masks drew the attention of major museums and Robert was commissioned to create performance works to enhance their collections. Among them: Journey to the Land of Souls for the American Museum of Natural History, Minotauromachy for the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Two-Headed Man & His Wife for the Brooklyn Museum, where he was also an Artist in Residence.

In The Last Mask, Robert utilized the raw material of clay as conceptual performance for the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, then at the Festival Mondial du Theatre and the Festival des Artes Traditionnels in France.  His mask exhibitions include: the Whitney Museum of American Art’s “Modern Masks,” the Brooklyn Museum’s “Mask Visions” and Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue windows.

An award-winning arts educator, Robert taught studio art to intellectually gifted children at Hunter College Campus Schools for 34 years. During that time, he also received a Master of Arts from New York University, and received a fellowship from City University of New York to explore the world’s great mosaics, enabling him to study Byzantine glass mosaic-making with Luciana Notturni in Ravenna Italy. He continues to create mosaics at his studio in Staten Island, New York.

Robert’s solo exhibition, “Conjuring in Glass and Clay,” is online at artwithoutboundaries.art. Group shows in New York include: The National Lighthouse Museum’s “Water and Light” and the Ceres Gallery’s juried “Signs of the Times.” His mosaics are part of many private collections.