'Raf Simons Steps Inside Steven Shearer’s Reclusive World'
2026
For a reclusive artist who rarely leaves his studio in Vancouver, Steven Shearer sure gets around. For the past three decades, Shearer’s peculiar brand of painting—haunted psychedelic portraits, most often of men, that merge rebellious youth with canons of Old Master works, often the freakier the better—has gained a global cult following. His paintings and drawings of long-haired metalheads have become his signature, but he’s also versed in photography and collage, employing his massive database of found internet images to create odes to themes like sleeping and blowing. Shearer likes to let his work do all the talking (he never allows his photo to be taken and rarely grants interviews). This summer, Shearer is showing a new suite of paintings, many of which were created with the help of AI, at David Zwirner in London. He hopped on Zoom with his friend, designer Raf Simons, to discuss growing up in isolation, following the art world from a distance, the greatness of JPEGs, and the creative freedom of the ’90s.
