Shara Mercado Poole

Utilizing layering and color tension, I create chaotic, claustrophobic, and fragmented spaces to evoke feelings of both the passing and collapsing of time. I like to describe my work broadly as a surreal blend of memento mori and pop art. More specifically vague, I like to say that all my work is a form of self-portraiture through everyday objects and the disenchanted lens of the millennial generation. As I work through these themes, ideas of time and memory frequently bubble to the surface as my subjects find themselves being overtaken by and dissolving into the eerie flickering haze of a cell phone’s glow, the misty atmosphere of dust motes, and the stagnant repetition of fading vintage wallpapers.

My work encapsulates my fears around aging. Of running out of time to accomplish all that I wanted, and perhaps more importantly, all that was expected. My work is about my anxieties in general and the ways in which the outside world has set expectations surrounding adulthood and cultural milestones which I have failed to live up to for a myriad of reasons that may or may not be my own fault, as I have yet to make this distinction. I like to do this with a sense of humor. I’m not sure if this makes the work easier for the ...

2022 - M.A. Art from California State University, Fresno

2019 - B.A. Studio Art from California State University, Sacramento

2022 Fragility & Endurance (2-person exhibition)
Phebe Conley Art Gallery, Fresno, CA
2021 Fluid
M Street Arts Complex, Fresno, CA
2020 Fresno Printmaker’s Guild Exhibition
Kings Art Center, Hanford, CA
2019 Hybridity in Contemporary Drawing
Phebe Conley Art Gallery, Fresno, CA
2018
Fleeting Memories & Past Ghosts (solo exhibition)
Robert Else Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2018 Leave Your Mark (digital mural w/ artist Peter Williams)
Wide Open Walls, Sacramento, CA
2018 Digital.lanoitidART
R.W. Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2017-2018 American River Fine Art Club (catalogue)
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
2017 Dia de los Muertos
The Brickhouse Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2017 Out of the Matrix (mural with Mazatl & Killjoy)
Phebe Conley Art Gallery, Fresno, CA
2017 Past & Present (mural w/ Mazatl & KillJoy)
Arté Americas, Fresno, CA
2017 Women’s Month
Sacramento Poetry Center, Sacramento, CA
2016 23rd Annual Pink Week
Warehouse Artist Lofts, Sacramento, CA
2016 Rooftop Relief (solo exhibition)
ArtJam, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission
2016 Student Award Show 2016
James Kaneko Gallery, Sacramento, CA