Profile

In the boys’ club that is Metro Pictures Gallery, Cindy Sherman remains the superstar. Easily one of the most prominent contemporary photographers of our time, Sherman made her name with her “Untitled Film Stills” series (1977-1980), in which she played myriad mysterious characters vaguely reminiscent of moments in international cinema. Her work has since grown far more graphic, increasingly drawing on the stuff of horror films. Metro Pictures is also the home of the original L.A. bad boy: the great, irreverent Mike Kelley. Kelley spawned a generation of artists influenced by his wild performance art and mixing of media—such as his group of hanging sculptures that used stuffed animals to form Minimalist-inspired geometric shapes. Also in the realm of media-mixing is Tony Oursler, who projects video footage on oversized objects to resemble talking heads, gigantic skulls or eyeballs. The gallery now also exhibits the beautiful films of 2001 Turner Prize nominee Isaac Julien, one of the princes of queer cinema whose content and extravagant use of color has drawn comparisons to Derek Jarman. — Alex Mar