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Shari M. Urquhart dies at 80

Shari Urquhart died November 21, 2020. B.S. Art Education (‘62), M.S. Art (Painting) (‘66), M.F.A Art.(painting) (‘67). Shari taught art at William Horlick High School, Racine, Wisconsin 1962-1964. She was on the faculty in the Department of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond Virginia, from 1972-1974. She was a visiting artist teaching painting at UW Madison Art Department in the mid-1980’s. During her 25 years (1982-2007) at the St. Francis Residence in New York City, which offered permanent housing to the mentally impaired, (the first of its kind), Shari designed a full art studio and taught daily classes. Shari continued her own studio practice throughout her working career. She reworked portraits of Medici princesses, princes, goddesses and northern Renaissance altar pieces using hooked fiber. Her one-person exhibition, “The Fuzzy Museum” at Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts in NYC, in December 2005 showed the artist’s work filled with humor drawn from non-art popular culture and her own feminine take on art and life.

Throughout her extraordinary career, she had many solo and group exhibitions with prestigious galleries around the country, her fiber tapestries astounding the viewer with layers of texture and an opulence of color. These lush life-size tapestries are filled with narrative images telling a story to excite the imagination.

Upon her retirement in 2007, Shari returned to Kenosha, where she continued to create new and fascinating narrative threads on a smaller scale. She continued her work until her death, leaving a legacy of profound storytelling.

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