Gallery: Cheryl Maeder – The Great Nude

Artist Statement:

The Dreamscapes Series were inspired by my travels to the Mediterranean coastal towns of Spain. I found that photographing in the impressionistic style causes the viewer to see the entire image with its palette of colors, form & light creating a mood, an emotion. My camera becomes my paintbrush, my instrument to convey to the viewer that the world we see in front of us is part of a larger reality and what appears to be clear and in focus is only our perception. In my series Dreamscapes, Les Copines/Les Copins, I wanted to photograph the beauty of the human form. I was inspired by the Impressionists and wanted to combine their influence with 21st century photography.

Biography:

I began my photography studies while living in Switzerland at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. I left Switzerland and returned to the United States. I opened my photography studio in San Francisco. I worked as a national fine art and advertising photographer shooting campaigns for clients such as Sony, AT&T, Visa, Calvin Klein, Marriott Hotels among others. My work was the inspiration for the Dove Campaign on Real Women, Real Beauty, which was shown in the United States and throughout the world. Ten years ago, I traveled throughout the coastal towns of the Costa Brava in Spain where I developed my current fine art body of work entitled Dreamscapes. I relocated my photography studio to South Florida in 2004, where I have been focusing solely on my fine art work.

My photography work is in the permanent collection of the Frost Museum and exhibited at Boca Museum of Art, Norton Museum and Florida Museum for Women Artists. My work has been awarded the Artoteque Biennial Contemporary Art Award of Excellence, International Color Awards Photography Masters Cup, Women in Photography International, Hasselblad Lurzer’s International Screenings Award and I was a finalist in Art Takes Miami 2012, Juried Competition by Artists Wanted & Scope Art Fair. My photographs have been auctioned at Sotheby’s and are collected worldwide, including New York, Shanghai, Paris, London, Istanbul, Miami and Toronto. My work has been hailed by Bruce Helander, Artist and Contributor to Art News Magazine and Huffingtonpost.com, as “one of those rare talents that effortlessly combine painting and photography into an engaging visual statement.