Past Exhibitions

Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life

Info & Tickets

Color portrait of Cindy Sherman with hands on the floor, looking up and to the left

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Sep 16, 2017–Dec 31, 2017

Galleries

Free for members, college students (with valid ID), those under 18

$8 general public
$6 senior citizens (65 and older)
$6 Ohio State faculty and staff (with BUCK ID)

All visitors are admitted to the exhibitions for free on Thursdays after 4 PM and on the first Sunday of each month; admission is also free with a ticket to any same-day Wexner Center event. The exhibitions are closed on Mondays.

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“Some of her images have become just about as iconic as the Hollywood ones she once riffed on, forming a new view of femininity in a postmodern age.”
—New York Times

Collecting over 100 works from four decades, this comprehensive, career-spanning survey of acclaimed artist Cindy Sherman makes its only stop outside of LA at the Wex. You’ll see everything from her influential Untitled Film Stills (1977–80)—in which Sherman employs makeup, costumes, lighting, and scenery to present herself as generic art-house and B-movie stars—through her most recent 2016 series, in which she takes on the guise of aging divas from the era of silent film and the golden age of Hollywood. The exhibition is enhanced by a free, celebrity-studded audio guide (featuring the voices of Molly Ringwald and John Waters, among others) and includes Sherman’s feature film Office Killer (1997), starring Ringwald, Carol Kane, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life reveals the endless variety of personae the artist has conjured throughout her career—all originating from her radically transformed self-image, and ranging from the affluent to the abject, the horrifying to the humorous. Occupying both sides of the camera, Sherman continues to raise crucial questions about the pervasive influence of mass media in constructing identity—and particularly the representation of women—and about the very nature of artistic creation. The exhibition concludes a year in which every artist featured in our galleries is a woman.

#allwomenallyear

This exhibition was organized by The Broad, Los Angeles.

Generous support for the Wexner Center’s presentation of Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life is provided by Cardinal Health Foundation, the Crane Family Foundation, Agnes Gund, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, and Orange Barrel Media.

Additional support provided by Dana and Brent Adler, Sam and Gigi Fried, DeeDee and Herb Glimcher, Matrix Psychological Services/Visualopathy, Susan Tomasky and Ron Ungvarsky, and Arlene and Michael Weiss.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #92, 1981. Chromogenic color print. 24 x 48 in. The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

Color portrait of Cindy Sherman holding a drink against a rear screen projection

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #70, 1980. Chromogenic color print, 20 x 24 in. The Broad Art Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

Color portrait of Cindy Sherman singing with arms outstretched

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #119, 1983. Chromogenic color print. 17 1/2 x 36 in. The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

Color portrait of Cindy Sherman wearing blue gloves and a teal dress

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #574, 2016; dye sublimation metal print, 46 x 39 in.; The Broad Art Foundation; image courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

Color portrait of Cindy Sherman dressed to look like a historical painting

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #193, 1989. Chromogenic color print. 48 7/8 x 41 15/16 in. The Broad Art Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

Black and white portrait of Cindy Sherman reminiscent of a classic Hollywood film

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #58, 1980. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in. The Broad Art Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.