Background

Ethnicity: Trevor's mother was born in Japan and his father was born in Hawaii.

Trevor Shimizu was born on March 30, 1978, in Santa Rosa, California, United States. He lived in Sebastopol, California, with his parents and sister until 1996.

Career

Throughout his creative career, Trevor has created paintings, drawings, video installations and video paintings. He has had a number of solo exhibitions, including those, held at Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich, Germany; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, Japan; The Vanity East, Los Angeles, California; and 47 Canal gallery, New York City.

Also, Shimizu has taken part in numerous group exhibitions at different galleries, including Brennan & Griffin, New York; Kodomo, Queens, New York City; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York City; Pilar Corrias, London, United Kingdom; Mudam Luxembourg Modern Art Museum, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg; Centre for Style, Melbourne, Australia; Nicolas Krupp Gallery, Basel, Switzerland; Four81 Gallery, New York City; 3A Gallery, New York City; Michael Thibault Gallery, Los Angeles, California; Franklin Street Works, Stamford, Connecticut; Night Gallery, Los Angeles, California; Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York City; Carriage Trade Gallery, New York City; White Columns, New York City; Weltraum 26, Munich, Germany; Guild & Greyshkul, New York City; and Canada Gallery, New York City, among others. In addition, Shimizu took part in the Whitney Biennial in 2014.

As a former Technical Director of Electronic Arts Intermix, Trevor collaborated closely with many artists, including Dan Graham, Carolee Schneemann, Shigeko Kubota and Dara Birnbaum, among others. Shimizu also served as a party photographer.

Currently, Trevor lives and works in Long Island City (New York City).

Achievements

• Trevor Shimizu is a well-known artist, primarily recognized for his paintings and drawings. However, he is also known for his video installations, video paintings and online interventions, offering a prescient and poignant commentary on affect and identity in a socially mediated moment.
  
  Trevor's work is part of the public collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan; and K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Marsh

  • Lavender

  • Heron

  • Grass Field Surrounded By Trees

  • Aralia

  • Redwood Trees and Banana Slug

  • Snails (2)

  • Snails (3)

  • Bodega Bay Fishing Hole

  • Elsa

  • Therapy

  • Proud Father

  • Goofy

  • Cows Chickens Birds

  • Troll

  • Times Square Girl

  • Times Square Family

  • Sexy Cat

  • Self Portrait

  • House Husband

  • Easter Bunny

  • Pennywise the Dancing Clown

  • Before

  • Sun Tanning

  • Beach Football

  • Girlfriend Wants a Baby

  • Self Portrait Asian Heartthrob

Views

Throughout his artistic practice, Trevor has created 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. Often produced, using lo-fi and off-the-shelf digital technologies, his time-based works resonate with strategies, employed by an earlier generation of video artists. Shimizu uses the technological tools at hand both to record actions for the camera and to employ the visual language of mass media for other means.

For Shimizu, video in its expanded sense has a provocative relationship to painting. In his ongoing series of video paintings, Shimizu pairs his existing videos with large unstretched canvases with holes, that have been cut out to fit a device. These painterly frames for video are usually produced in one of two distinct genres: monochromes or gestural abstractions. While his videos and paintings are different in delivery, Shimizu sees both modes of working as coming "from the perspective of a character", which in turn can be understood as a kind of performance of the role of the artist.

It's important to note, that self-representation is the main theme in Trevor's oeuvre and his paintings and videos often integrate the artist as a surrogate, who is elusively aligned with Shimizu.

Although there is no singular character, depicted in Shimizu's work, he often gravitates to the figure of the lone "beta male". Contrary to the negative associations often conjured by angry internet subcultures, such as incels, edgelords, and brogrammers, Shimizu offers a more vulnerable depiction of mediated masculine subjectivity.

Personality

Trevor shares a birthday with Vincent Van Gogh and Francisco Goya. In addition, it was Vincent van Gogh, who served as inspiration for Shimizu to become a painter.

Connections

Trevor is married and has a daughter.

Influence:

Vincent van Gogh

colleague:

Dan Graham

colleague:

Carolee Schneemann

colleague:

Shigeko Kubota

colleague:

Dara Birnbaum