Photographer Cindy Sherman, has been invited by The Royal Academy Of Arts in London, to become an honourary member. This rare token has been given to only a handful of elite American and international Artists, in the last century. Sherman was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey in 1954. She studied art at Buffalo State College (1972–6) specializing in photography. Her photographs are portraits of herself in various scenarios that parody stereotypes of woman. Numerous characters and settings are drawn from sources of popular culture: old movies, television soaps and pulp magazines. While the mood of Sherman’s early works ranges from quiet introspection to provocative sensuality, there are elements of horror and decay.
Her work has been the subject of countless major international exhibitions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1997), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1997–2000); the Serpentine Gallery, London and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (2003), and the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2006), Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark, and Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2006–2007).
Cindy Sherman will take part in the RA’s GSK Contemporary – Aware: Art Fashion Identity from 2 December 2010 to 30 January 2011. The RA is governed by 80 Royal Academicians who are all practising painters, sculptors, engravers, printmakers, draughtsmen and architects. Elections are held annually and new Members are voted in by existing RAs. Honorary Academicians are distinguished artists who are not resident in the UK. A maximum of two per year may be appointed by the RAs
Other American Honorary Members include; Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, IM Pei, Richard Serra, Frank O. Gehry, Ellsworth Kelly, Bruce Nauman, James Turrell, Daniel Libeskind, Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel and now Cindy Sherman.