Trevor Shimizu

Biography

Trevor Shimizu has produced a large body of paintings that are crudely gestural and sparse, and subtle in their compositional aesthetics if not in their subject matter. In works that are semi-autobiographical, humiliating social incidents and aberrations usually kept private are made public. Alongside his painting practice, Shimizu has produced a body of video art that emphasizes how his personal and public identities have been shaped by home video and the banality of television and media consumerism. As a former Technical Director of Electronic Arts Intermix, he developed close friendships and collaborations with artists including Dan Graham, Carolee Schneemann, Shigeko Kubota, and Dara Birnbaum. The influence of other EAI artists, especially the droll, self-depricating humor of Michael Smith, and Mike Kelley’s unflinching portrayals of American culture, is also clearly evident.

Self-representation is a theme across Shimizu’s art, and his paintings and videos often incorporate the artist as a surrogate who is elusively aligned with Shimizu. In the three videos that comprise his Lonely Loser Trilogy (2000), for instance, the artist records extended browsing sessions online, each one featuring a high-energy, macho sport that underscores Shimizu’s pathetic living room spectatorship. Skate Videos was recorded with a pair of Google-glasses, further emphasizing the house-bound loser’s dependency on gear to compensate for inaction. The domestication of skate videos that in youth might have represented teenage rebellion conjures a poignant portrait of the artist as an adult.

Trevor Shimizu was born in 1978. He has had solo exhibitions at Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich, Germany; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, Japan; The Vanity East, Los Angeles, CA; and 47 Canal, New York, NY. He has had group exhibitions at Brennan & Griffin, New York; Kodomo, Queens, NY; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Pilar Corrias, London, UK; Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg; Centre for Style, Melbourne, Australia; Nicolas Krupp, Basel, Switzerland; four81, New York, NY; 3A Gallery, New York, NY; Michael Thibault Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT; Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY; Jancar Jones Gallery, LA, California; Carriage Trade, New York, NY; White Columns, New York, NY; Taxter & Spengemann, New York, NY; Weltraum 26, Munich, Germany; Guild & Greyshkul, New York, NY; and Canada, New York, NY. Shimizu participated in the Whitney Biennial in 2014. His work is part of the public collection of High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Shimizu lives and works in Long Island City, NY.