Awarded Fellowship by the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts

January 30 - February 27, 2014
"Encounters"
Solo exhibition of new work by Cheryl K. Shurtleff at Boise State University Visual Arts Center

A catalog of the exhibition is available at Blurb.com

"Cheryl K. Shurtleff's recent works of graphite on paper explore the representation of animals and animal consciousness. Shurtleff deftly draws animals such as rabbits, songbirds, cats, and wolves juxtaposed in uncommon relationships to other animals, objects, and environments in dark abstract spaces. The animal pairings or groups in each image suggest a narrative or dialogue between the animals themselves and a discourse between human and animal".

Kirsten Furlong
Curator and Gallery Director
Visual Arts Center at Boise State University.

"Ufinished" Exhibition at Linen Building Gallery in Boise, Idaho.
Jan. 3 - Feb. 28, 2013

“Unfinished” represents a diverse group of visual artists working in a variety of disciplines, including painting, sculpture, film, photography, ceramics, collage, sound, drawing, printmaking, poetry and architecture.

The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to peek into the process and the often-unseen life of the art idea or art object. Between concept and final form lies the generative development; “Unfinished” draws upon the value and beauty of the often-unknown rigor and struggle inherent in the creative practice. The exhibition features work that has been set aside, abandoned, unfinished, destroyed, left in limbo, reconstructed or reconfigured.

This thought-provoking and beautiful exhibition shares and speaks to the true richness of the artistic process.

Participating artists: Ted Apel, Jason Appelman, Brooke Burton, Maria Chavez, Eli Craven, Kirsten Furlong, Charles Gill, Amanda Hamilton, David Herbold, Elijah Jensen-Lindsey, Adrian Kien, Andy Lawless, William Lewis, Amy O'Brien, Kelly Packer, Troy Passey, Jon Sadler, Cheryl Shurtleff and Richard Young.

ART/DIALOG: Surel's Place, Boise, Idaho
Wednesday, October 31, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
"The Cat Hairs Go to Coney Island"

Sheehan Gallery, Whitman College, October 21 - December 12, 2011

"Curated by Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art, MaLynda Poulsen, Curiously Aligned: Contemporary Drawing Practices is an exhibition featuring Kris Hargis, Angela Katona-Batchelor, Scott Kolbo, MaLynda Poulsen, CHERYL SHURTLEFF, and Charles Timm-Ballard: six Northwest artists investigating the process of drawing in the course of their artistic production. Whether it is the lush charcoal surfaces created by Shurtleff and Poulsen, the minutely detailed etchings of Katona-Batchelor, the meticulous renderings of Kolbo, the expressive surreal strokes of Hargis, or the subtle imagined spaces of Timm-Ballard, all of these artists’ works share a tremendous sincerity and sensitivity in the making of their marks.

The artists represented in Curiously Aligned are masters in their creation of moving visual tensions. Each piece, whether partially concealed, contained, or projected is rich with elements of personal narrative. Beyond this, however, the work expands to explore with humor, honesty, and poignancy, the complexities of human experience. There is also an undercurrent of anxiety or a quest for peace and resolution present in many of the pieces in this exhibition that is evocative of the larger struggles individuals encounter as they seek to locate themselves within the complicated frameworks of our time."

Dawn M. Forbes
Director of the Donald H. Sheehan Gallery
Whitman College

Shurtleff showed her work April 15-17 in the "Colonnade of Curiosities" at Coney Island, part of the Congress of Curious Peoples held April 8-17, 2011.

The Congress of Curious Peoples featured a two-day symposium, described as an intellectual investigation of "immersive amusements, human anatomy on display from fairground to museum, science for public amusement, dime museums and their place in the 21st Century imagination, and schlarship as artistic medium, featuring a variety of inspiring scholars, collectors, authors, artists and practitioners." Shurtleff's work was cited in the April 4 edition of the New York Times magazine Time Out as one of "Five Things to See at the Congress of Curious Peoples."

Organized every three years, the 2010 Idaho Triennial juried exhibition brought together exemplary works of art created by 45 Idaho artists who were selected by Seattle curator Beth Sellars.
Cheryl Shurtleff presented a public art talk on her work in the triennial on November 4, 2010.
Exhibited works: Bird and Rabbit; Bird and Piglet; Dog and Bird.

Birds of a Feather featured work selected from the permanent collection of the Boise Art Museum, the Driek and Michael Zirinsky Collection and from other community lenders. It coincided with BAM's John James Audubon exhibition. Included in Birds of a Feather was Shurtleff's work, MINER.

Born 1947 in Oregon
Resides in Boise, Idaho

MA in Modern Art History: University of Oregon, 1988
MA in Art Education: Boise State University, 1978
BFA in Art, Drawing and Painting: Boise State College, 1973

Professor of Art, Boise State University: 1978 - Present

Cheryl K. Shurtleff's work has been placed in exhibitions by recognized artists and critics, including Lucy Lippard, Dennis Barrie, Dave Hickey, Ed Paschke and Jay DeFeo. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and received a Faculty Recognition Award for Outstanding Creative Research from the Boise State University College of Arts and Sciences, and a University Foundation Scholar Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boise State.