Trevor Shimizu

Trevor Shimizu is a multidisciplinary artist born on March 30, 1978, in Santa Rosa, California. Raised in Sebastopol, California, with a Japanese mother and a Hawaiian-born father, Shimizu’s cultural background informs his exploration of identity, masculinity, and media culture. After living in Santa Cruz, Oakland, and San Francisco, he relocated to New York in 2002, where he currently resides with his wife and daughter in Long Island City. Shimizu’s work spans painting, video, performance, and digital interventions, characterized by a semi-autobiographical approach that blends humor, self-deprecation, and social commentary.

Shimizu’s paintings are known for their crudely gestural and sparse aesthetic, often addressing personal and societal themes such as humiliating social incidents, media consumerism, and clichéd situations of everyday life. His video works, influenced by his tenure as Technical Director at Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), explore identity and affect in a socially mediated world, drawing inspiration from artists like Michael Smith, Mike Kelley, and Dara Birnbaum. Works like the Lonely Loser Trilogy (2000) and Memoir (2005–17) highlight his fascination with the banality of television, home video, and online culture, often presenting himself as a character or surrogate. His Late Work series parodies the trope of the aging male artist, featuring zero-gravity nudes and unstretched canvases, while his recent landscape paintings reflect his current environment along the Hudson River, engaging with memory and abstraction.

Shimizu’s practice is marked by a dry wit and a critical investigation of self-presentation, often blurring the line between the artist as individual and as performer. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Biennial (2014) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2020), and is held in collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the High Museum of Art.