Painter · Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Canvases six feet tall, photorealistic enough to be mistaken for a photograph, built for the wall of a gallery, a museum, or a room with the ceiling height to take them.
Imaginative Pop Realism
Audacious figure paintings, a hyper-realistic hand, and a lens turned directly on contemporary culture.
Sherry Wolf’s work is renowned for a technique so exact that a canvas can be mistaken for a photograph — and for the commentary running underneath it. Her paintings first captivated audiences at New York’s Allan Stone Gallery, hung alongside Richard Estes and Wayne Thiebaud.
In 1983 Seymour Knox acquired Artist in the Studio for the permanent collection of the Albright-Knox — the museum’s first acquisition of contemporary American realist painting. The Label Lady, a self-portrait as fashion victim, is now studied in sociology courses across the country.
The full story
Selected works
At scale
Most of these canvases stand between five and six and a half feet tall. They were painted for gallery walls, museum rooms and residences with the height to carry them, and they change the room they are hung in.
Photographed in the artist’s studio
In the permanent collection
Wolf painted herself in her own super-realistic technique — but cast as an abstract painter, questioning the validity of some of the abstract work then hanging in important galleries and museums. Seymour Knox saw her interview on the Today Show, contacted Sotheby’s to handle the acquisition, and the painting became the museum’s first purchase of contemporary American realism.
See the Artists series“Sherry Wolf’s work conveys a grandeur that inspires prolonged contemplation, not only for her masterful technique but equally for her exciting and inspiring visions that draw crowds around her oversized canvases.”
Beyond the canvas
Painting has never been the only thing happening. Wolf built a leather handbag label stocked by Bendel and Bergdorf, launched 18-karat gold jewellery at Neiman Marcus, designed the neckwear a president wore, and shot a comedy series with Jerry Weintraub.
Wolf designed her own motorised easel, set into a slot in the studio floor, so a twelve-foot canvas can travel up and down at the push of a button. The room is furnished with work by Albert Paley and Wendell Castle.
Inside the studio
Through the 1990s and 2000s Wolf built a leather handbag house under her own name — carried by Neiman Marcus, Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s. Every style was a limited edition, most under ten bags a colour.
See the handbags
A sculptural charm collection launched exclusively at Neiman Marcus in 1994. Pieces detach to become pins or earrings — fans, bows, hearts and cuffs, reviewed by W, Women’s Wear Daily and CNN.
See the jewelry
A six-episode comedy mini-series directed by Alvin Gray and produced by Jerry Weintraub, following Wolf and her staff through the absurdities of running an art and fashion business.
Watch the episodes“Wolf’s work depicts the contemporary vernacular with acute specificity and detail; it resonates with a social and historical particularity that only comes from a careful study of the environment.”
“Sherry Wolf’s work conveys a grandeur that inspires prolonged contemplation, not only for her masterful technique but equally for her exciting and inspiring visions that draw crowds around her oversized canvases.”
Seymour H. Knox, Jr.“Visionary genius.”
NBC Nightly News“One of the cleverest artists and designers to come onto the scene in a long time.”
PeopleMuseum collections
Galleries & fairs
Enquiries
Enquire about original paintings, limited-edition giclée prints, upcoming appearances, or a design collaboration. Every message reaches the studio directly.
