Hermansader creates intimately scaled drawings that convey her sense of the world as a place of great mystery and complexity. For over fifty years, while creating different bodies of work, she has been seamlessly blending inner and outer worlds to conjure alternative realities. Subject matter determines the materials, technique, size and style. The drawings reveal her talent for inventing new ways to use common materials - such as thread, colored pencils, paper and paint. Her imagery is built from a collection of intuitive and often deeply personal images and symbols. "Each work is simultaneously a fleeting, ephemeral dream image and a highly material, haptic experience for the viewer."
( Jamie Franklin, curator, Bennington Museum )
Marcy Hermansader ( b 1951, Long Island, NY ) has lived in southern VT for five decades. She received a BFA in sculpture from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1973 where she studied with Cynthia Carlson, Ree Morton and Rafael Ferrer. Hermansader has had one person exhibitions at Williams College Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the DeCordova Museum among others. The artist has also participated in over fifty group shows including “Interfaces: Outsider Art and the Mainstream” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “The Drawn Page” at the Aldrich Museum and “Curator’s Choice” at the Bronx Museum. Her drawings have been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Arts Council, among others. Hermansader's work is held in public collections including the Fogg Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The artist also served on the Vermont Arts Council’s Access Resources Team to promote access to the arts for people with disabilities.