Kathleen Sherin

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores an evolving narrative of space and borders—expanse and limit, movement and restraint. Unconvinced that boundaries exist as absolutes, I push the edges of metaphor in an ongoing dialogue between reason and intuition, meaning and potential.

I think of being an artist as a journey—one that moves forward and sometimes sideways—toward a visual destination just beyond reach. This series represents a quieter sidestep in that ongoing passage.

At the heart of my practice lies a search for equilibrium between physical and psychological forces, between real and imagined boundaries. Each piece is a visual distillation—an attempt to hold balance within flux. The concept that informs my current dominant studio practice centers on the tension between stable structures and disruptive forces; prints in my 2025 exhibition contention, explored this through bold forms and intense linear interplay.

This exhibition emerged from a quieter inquiry - a series I call Contemplation. A desire to capture the lingering resonance of looking through trees as darkness descends, holding onto the final light of day resulted in Night Watch and Last light. The horizontal bands that cross the image both stabilize and divide—simultaneously barrier and anchor, distance and hum—suspended between chaos and calm. Other works in this exhibition continue my dialogue with the physical world, tracing shifts of perception and memory.

My process is intuitive and exploratory. I create unique, print-based works on paper through direct, non-chemically mediated techniques including. Each series begins with an open-ended idea and evolves through process—through touch, layering, and chance. I trust in wandering, discovery, and reassembly—cutting, rearranging, and rebalancing until form and thought find their alignment.

BIO 

Born in Albany, New York, Kathleen Sherin now lives and works in Buffalo, where her artistic practice bridges the tactile and the contemplative. Before turning fully to art, Sherin pursued a career in nursing, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University at Buffalo. Even while working as a pediatric nurse, she cultivated her creative practice, eventually earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Empire State College and a Master of Fine Arts from the University at Buffalo.

For several years, Sherin balanced her dual paths— nursing, teaching as adjunct art faculty at Niagara County Community College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and D’Youville University, while maintaining an active studio practice. From 2005 to 2015, she served as Director and Curator of the Dolce Valvo Art Gallery at NCCC, and she continues to curate exhibitions at Betty’s Restaurant in Buffalo. Sherin has also led numerous community printmaking workshops, fostering engagement through hands-on exploration.

Working from her studio at Buffalo Arts Studio and through the University at Buffalo’s community print shop, Sherin’s process-centered approach explores the tension between opposites—structure and chance, gesture and stillness, intuition and reason. Her work unfolds through direct, non-chemically mediated printmaking techniques such as monoprint, collagraph, dry point, and carborundum. Each plate becomes a conversation: forms shift, fragments are cut and reassembled, and meaning emerges through layering and revision. This continual reconstruction mirrors her search for equilibrium within the interplay of chaos and control.

Sherin’s prints have been exhibited widely in regional and national venues, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, The Mulvane Museum, Alice C. Sabatini Gallery, Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Her works are held in numerous public and private collections such as the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Gerald Mead Collection. She has received recognition through the New York Foundation for the Arts MARK10 program, residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Women’s Studio Workshop, and multiple juror’s and curator’s awards