GERALD EUHON SHEFFIELD II:
melancholy satire

July 15 - August 27, 2022
Public reception: August 5, 5:30 – 8 pm

Steven Zevitas Gallery is pleased to present melancholy satire, an exhibition of new paintings by Gerald Euhon Sheffield II. The exhibition will run from July 15 – August 27, 2022 with a public opening reception on Friday, August 5 from 5:30 – 8 pm.

Each work presented in melancholy satire belongs to a larger ongoing series entitled fable for introverts in which Sheffield reflects on a 2019 Fulbright trip to the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border and his subsequent return to the United States. An avid researcher and Army veteran, Sheffield extends his experiences and findings into a visual language where research, personal anecdotes, book titles, the effects and structures of racial epithets, American folklore, domesticated animals, and playful figures of speech intermingle. Amongst this cultural chaos, Sheffield provides intentional, intimate moments of rest and introspection.

The smallest painting in the exhibition, a yellow bird, a yellow bill, sat upon my window sill!, depicts a brightly colored bird hopping through an open window on a sunny day. The bird looks directly at the viewer, ready to eat a piece of bread at the bottom of the frame. What first appears as an innocuous domestic scene starts to become more insidious as we notice a string tied around the morsel. What once appeared as a gift has turned into a trap as these playful markers build to a darker dialogue. The title of this painting sounds like an upbeat song, but comes from a US Army cadence sung by soldiers marching in basic training and speaks to a loss of innocence in boredom during war: A yellow bird, / With a yellow bill, / Sat upon / My window sill! / I lured him in, / With a piece of bread, / And then I smashed, / his fucking head! / I scooped him up, / In a dixie cup, / And then I drank, / That fucker up! / The moral of, / This story goes, / To get some head, / You need some bread!

While melancholy satire points to sadness submerged beneath the guise of humor, we find respite in Sheffield’s open strokes and his willingness to address weighted themes through the lens of his domestic life. A flower blooms in darkness, a woman appears triumphant atop her horse, and hands brush in an intimate moment.

Gerald Euhon Sheffield II is an artist and educator living and working in Massachusetts and New York. His studio proctice is based in critical and site-specific research, painting and sculpture, and fluid dialogues between art, design, and public discourse. Sheffield’s professional background consists of a diversity of institutions and collaborations across borders. He served in the United States Army for eight years as a Visual Communications and Military Intelligence Public Affairs specialist in Paraguay, Guatemala, Brazil, and Kuwait. He deployed to Iraq from 2007-2008, working alongside Iraqi civilians and community leaders during the Iraqi Reconstruction campaign. He received a BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, and an MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the United States Armed Forces Meritorious Service Medal, the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship, and JUNCTURE Human Rights Research and Travel Fellowship in South Africa. He recently completed a Fulbright Research Grant in Samarkand and Tashkent, Uzbekistan - researching the Islamic architecture of the Silk Road and its influence on the tolerance and diversity of Central Asian Muslim society. He is a 2022-2023 National Endowment of the Humanities Fellow. He currently teaches Foundation Drawing at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, and Structural Drawing at The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Sheffield is working on a long-term book collaboration with Afghan-American poet and scholar, Zahra Saed, regarding the travels of Harlem Renaissance poet - Langston Hughes and his travels to Soviet Central Asia.