Sheba Sharrow, Balancing Act II, 1992, mixed media on Arches paper, 60x84 in

(HOLMDEL, NJ) -- James Yarosh Associates Fine Art Gallery is participating in Art on Paper, hosted at Manhattan's Pier 36 September 5-8, 2024 during Armory Art Week. Curator James Yarosh will be presenting the works of two female humanistic expressionists of the last century, Miriam Beerman and Sheba Sharrow, as part of a larger effort to amplify the voices of great women artists from history—so their conversations may continue.

“Beerman and Sharrow are part of a canon of 20th-century women artists who were nearly lost to obscurity due to their  gender in a male-dominated world,” says Yarosh. “In recent years we have seen an immense effort from curators around the world to revisit and amplify the stories of great women artists throughout history, such as Tate Britain’s Now You See Us and The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Making Her Mark. I see my continued curatorial activism as a responsibility to the preservation and renewal of this much-needed movement.”

Born only three years apart in the 1920s, Beerman and Sharrow faced an uphill battle to prove themselves, taking to their canvases to grapple with serious subject matter and fight for their right to speak. Their expressive, primal, paintings reference heavy 20th-century subjects—the Holocaust, the struggle for civil rights, the threat of nuclear disaster—and address these narratives head on.

“Beerman and Sharrow’s works were call to actions, and serve as reminders to us that history repeats,” says Yarosh. “It is the shared role of both gallerists and art collectors to support and give voice to the artists who bore witness to expose larger audiences to their lessons and ensure their stories are cemented in our collective history. Ultimately, I see in both women a hunger for beauty and hope in spite of human cruelty and pain, encapsulating the healing power of art for the human spirit.”

Yarosh’s participation in Art on Paper dovetails with the extension of his gallery exhibition, MIRIAM BEERMAN / SHEBA SHARROW – HER STORY: Revisiting Women Artists of the 20th Century, currently on view at 45 East Main Street (Rt.520) in Historic Holmdel Village, New Jersey. The exhibition will remain on view through January 2025.

Sheba Sharrow (1926–2006) - Born in Brooklyn in 1926 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents and raised in Chicago, Sheba Sharrow was a child of the Great Depression and World War II, and a participant in the social justice movements of the ‘60s and ’70s. She earned her BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago, studying with Boris Anisfeld and Joseph Hirsch. She continued her studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and earned an MFA at the Tyler School of the Arts at Temple University. She has been considered part of the “Chicago School” of imagist painters. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Zimmerli Art Museum and many private collections.

Sheba Sharrow’s art was also exhibited as a solo presentation by James Yarosh at the Art on Paper 2021.

Miriam Beerman, The Plague Eats Away My Pale Face, 1990s, acrylic on paper, 75 x 76 in

The James Yarosh Associates Fine Art Gallery, located one hour outside of Manhattan in Holmdel, New Jersey, was established in 1996 and remains loyal to representing fine art, curating gallery collections, and thoughtfully presenting art and interior design specifications through an artist’s vision and understanding. Yarosh has received national acclaim for presenting Russian fine art collections and recognizing significant art movements in their infancy. Yarosh advocates for what greatness looks like in the arts, showcasing at his destination gallery the works of both new and established museum-recognized artists of merit in a space designed to replicate the intimacy of an artist’s home.