Brian Sherwin

Brian Sherwin (born January 22, 1980 ) is an American art critic, writer, and blogger with a degree from Illinois College in 2003.

Sherwin is a founding Management Team member of the artist social networking site myartspace, where he also served as Senior Editor for six years.

As Senior Editor for myartspace.com Sherwin established an extensive interview series with emerging and established visual artists.

Sherwin currently writes for FineArtViews and is the editor of The Art Edge.

Sherwin is also an advocate for youth art education.

Brian Sherwin was the Senior Editor for myartspace and continues to be an advocate for emerging artists.

His interview series for myartspace was titled Art Space Talk and was included in the myartspace Weekly Featured Art Edition.

The Weekly was an 'opt-in' only publication sent to subscribers by email, and can be found archived on the site.

Since 2006, Sherwin has interviewed over 500 emerging and established artists and has conducted up to 30 interviews per month.

Sherwin said, "I consider myself to be one of the few authentic neutral voices at this time as far as reporting what is really going on in the art world instead of being told what I should report on and when. Neutral with a bite."

The Stuckism web site said:

"Brian Sherwin is the senior editor on the myartspace site, with a widespread reputation for his extensive and non-partisan interview series with over 400 artists. This is unique in its scope in contemporary art writing, encompassing world famous names such as James Rosenquist, as well as relatively unknown artists whom he considers of worth. In total it constitutes an invaluable record of contemporary art, as seen through the words of its practitioners."

Sherwin's "Art Space Talk" series of interviews involves his conversations with representatives from the business side of the art world.

He has interviewed several editors and publishers from the mainstream art community.

Including, Amir Fallah (Beautiful/Decay Magazine), Steven Zevitas (New American Paintings), Mark Staff Brandl (Art in America) and David Lee (Art Review, The Jackdaw).

His typical questions involve topics such as the state of the art world, the validity of contemporary art fairs, and other topics related to the professional art world when interviewing art magazine editors, publishers, curators, and art critics.

Sherwin's interviews and articles explore the academic community.

He often asks interviewees about their art school backgrounds, influential instructors that they have had, and suggestions for current art students.

In 2007, Sherwin interviewed Kirsten Anderson, who owns the Roq la Rue Gallery, Seattle.

Anderson is the author of Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art.

In her interview with Sherwin she discussed the relationship between Street art, Pop surrealism and Lowbrow, as well as the growth of Juxtapoz magazine, which she thought had "morphed itself into a street art magazine.".

The exchange between Sherwin and Anderson has been referenced on several online communities and forums.

His interviews were mentioned in the May 16 and July 19, 2008, editions of the San Francisco Art Institute newsletter "SFAI/INFORM" which is archived SFAI website.

His interviews with SFAI alumni Seth Lower and Christian Schumann included topics focused on the SFAI program and advice for future students.

Sherwin's interview with Schumann was also featured on the Juxtapoz website.

Sherwin's on-going interview series, which has continued on FineArtViews, serves to document aspects of contemporary art culture.

He bridges the mainstream art scene and the underground art scene in his interviews.

He has interviewed mainstream artists, Michael Craig-Martin, Vito Acconci, James Rosenquist, Sylvia Sleigh, Georgina Starr, Patrick Brill, William T. Wiley, Norman Carlberg, Bo Bartlett, Janet Biggs, Pat Lipsky, Sarah Maple and Aleksandra Mir, artists associated with the underground art scene, Alex Grey, Blaine Fontana, Chet Zar, Mark Ryden, Laurie Lipton, David Stoupakis and Sas Christian, and members of alternative contemporary art movements, Defastenism and Stuckism.

for myartspace.

For FineArtViews Sherwin has interviewed art organizers such as Rick DeVos of ArtPrize and CJ Follini of COMPANY, and artists such as Blek le Rat on topics ranging from online art marketing to issues over copyright infringement.

Sherwin has also interviewed authors and musicians.

Including, his interview with bassist Sean Yseult of White Zombie, author Janet Evanovich, and author Anne Bishop.

Sherwin is also an artist.

He lives in Illinois, USA, and campaigns for more prominence for art.

In 2009, Sherwin interviewed Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.

The interview focused on what passes for notability in respect to visual artist bios on Wikipedia among other things.

In the course of the interview Sherwin questioned Wales about widespread allegations that Wikipedia has failed to offer adequate art coverage.

Wales stressed that he feels that coverage of the arts on Wikipedia needs to be improved and admitted that there are "gaps in coverage".

He told Sherwin about some of the difficulties that arise when establishing notability and stated, "We're able to find "notability" in lots of different places and for lots of different reasons."

When Sherwin pressed Wales about his interpretation of what makes a visual artist notable by Wikipedia standards Wales replied that there are "no easy answers".