Meet Sherman Yee | Creative Director & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sherman Yee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sherman, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When I started my fine art career, the idea of the starving artist always came to mind. I started drawing when I was very young and always loved doing it. But I didn’t realize you could actually do that for a career. I started off doing commercial art, graphic design and creative direction for design studios and ad agencies. I finally found my community of artists in 2019 when I started going to drawing studios and art collectives in NYC. I started to get noticed and started to have gallery and museum shows. That’s what fueled me, and what made me happy. I was able to create art on my own terms and it felt great. I didn’t have to worry about what others wanted or if they liked it. So from that moment the spark hit me and I’ve been obsessed with painting and creating art for various shows in NYC and now in South Florida. It felt great to be able to share my narratives and point of view through painting and art.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have many inspirations. Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Patrick Nagel, and Tom of Finland to mention a few. Tom of Finland was the artist who inspired me to draw and the subject matter as well. He created photo realistic black and white drawings and I was amazed at the craftsmanship as well as the narratives he told. My art also features male figures and the narratives around male beauty, queer relationships, and masculinity. In art history, not many queer stories and male figures are shown in art. I also grew up in a small town (Cedar City, UT) and it was mostly caucasian and leaned on more masculinity for males. So that’s why a lot of my art skews in that direction. It’s representative of what I saw in my younger years. I also like playing with the ideas of masculinity and stereotypes. I have a construction series of hypermasculine men, but they are in relationships with each other and also objects. It’s the male gaze turned back upon the male figure. I’m currently working on a series titled “Trouble in Paradise”. It features beautiful men in distress in beautiful locations. Beautiful people are always shown on social media as ‘having it all’ and that’s not reality. So I wanted to show in this series, that although the men are beautiful, they are in these tropical locations, they are not perfect. And that’s beautiful!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would definitely take them to Sebastian beach. Probably one of the most beautiful, inclusive and calm water beaches. Nights and weekends would be hanging out on Wilton Drive where there are many restaurants and bars. So many good places to eat like Courtyard Cafe for breakfast, Ethos for greek, and Spencers for some fried food. For nightlife, I like Georgie’s Alibi, the Eagle, Drynk and the Pub. I would also take them to an art show at Hot Spots art gallery or Broward Art Guild, or an art walk on Wilton Drive. We would probably also hang at my pool and bbq! One of our favorite things to do.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people along the way that have supported and encouraged me along the way. One of them is the Leslie Lohman Museum in Manhattan, NY. They have shown the support to the queer art community by archiving and collecting art and sharing. They have a drawing studio that I attended weekly called Prince Street Studios and artists like me would paint and draw from live model. That’s where I got my first show and it was a museum show. Here in Fort Lauderdale, one of many organizations is Arts United who supports artists and gives members exhibition opportunities.

Website: https://shermanyee.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shermanyee/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShermanYeeArt/