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For the past 17 years I have been making sculptures that reference ancient art and are constructed mainly from recycled plastic bottles.
My influences include ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern votive figures, tomb models, animal sculptures, vessels, and hybrid animal/vessel sculptures. I love these works for their visual beauty and mystery, for their visceral connection to the past, and for their timeless themes that depict a common humanity across cultures. Through these pieces, I learn about the history, customs, and religious practices of the past while marveling at the beautiful forms and exquisite skills of these artist ancestors.
In my studio, with equal parts reverence and play, I reinterpret these ancient works using recycled plastic bottles. I collect, cut into pieces, and glue the found convex and concave parts into new sculpture. Some of my pieces are a close facsimile of the ancient works, while others evolve through the process of making and take on a form of their own.
Building my sculptures is slow—I construct, cut away, and remake my pieces until the forms feel right and seem to embody an inner life. I then coat the pieces with glaze-like layers of resins, polymers, paint, mica, and glass powders to alter the color of the plastic, vary the levels of transparency and opacity, and emphasize or obscure the original material. At first glance, my work might look like glass or ceramic, yet upon closer inspection, a logo, a familiar embossed pattern, or an expiration date reveals the actual plastic material.
Conceptually, I’m interested in our understanding of ancient works and cultures, our shifting notions of value, and the environmental impact of our contemporary throwaway culture. Formally, my interest is in transforming unlikely materials into compelling sculptures through the exploration of structure, form, scale, texture, and color.
Shari Mendelson is a sculptor living and working in Brooklyn and Schoharie County, New York. She has been the recipient of four New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships (2017, 2011, 1997, and 1987), a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (1989), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant (2017) and a Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award (2024). She has been a resident at Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Bau Institute/Camargo Foundation, as well as a visiting artist at UrbanGlass, The Corning Museum of Glass, The Toledo Museum of Art, and Pilchuck School of Glass.
Solo exhibitions include Fahrenheit Madrid, Madrid Spain, (2023-24) Tibor de Nagy, NYC (2023, 2020), Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY (2025, 2022), The Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ (2019), The Agnes Varis Art Center, Brooklyn, NY (2018), Todd Merrill Studio, NYC (2067/17), John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY (2013) and Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY (1997) among others. She has been included in numerous 2 person and group exhibitions including a 2-person show at the Eckert Art Gallery at Millersville University, Millersville, PA, and a 4-person show at Make Hauser & Wirth, LA, CA both in 2024.
Mendelson’s work is in the permanent collection of the following museum collections: The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, The RISD Museum, Providence, RI, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, and The Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, AU. Her work is also in many other public and private collections.
Her work has been featured in publications including in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Sculpture Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Forward, the Los Angeles Times, Glass Quarterly, and others.
Mendelson received an MFA from the State University at New Paltz and a BFA from Arizona State University. She has taught at many schools including Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, The Maryland Institute College of Art, New York University, and The Ethical Culture Fieldston School.