Yonic Inversion
Western Project, Los Angeles, CA 2010 

painting, drawing, sculpture 


Sometime in June of 2009, amid a very strong group show,
Western Project exhibited two paintings by a just-dis-
covered Aaron Sheppard. The paintings exuded a kind of
magnetism that locked viewers in their sightlines: less
the shock of novelty than rediscovery - an uncannily
familiar, yet slightly archaic, mannerist representation-
al style, tinged with qualities both visionary and ex-
plicitly, almost appetizingly carnal, as well as a dis-
tinct satirical edge.

A year and a half after his Debutante's Eclipse (one of
the paintings that got everyone's attention), Sheppard's
debut solo show throws the viewer into a host of new
issues, obsessions, media and materials. If Sheppard's
first Debutante presented us with a glistening vulva
not unlike, as I wrote at the time, "the wound of
Amfortas in Syberberg's film of Parsifal, Yonic Inver-
sion (the yoni is the stylized Hindu representation of
the vulva) - gives us its inverse in a myriad of incar-
nations and an expansive range of media and materials.
With his first paintings, Sheppard worked the frames
themselves into elaborations and extensions of their
subjects. Here, he expands beyond the frame and beyond
painting into a show of collage and assemblage that
pushes his visionary theater to the edge and sometimes
over it.

-Ezrha Jean Black
 segment from Aaron Sheppard: Yonic Inversion
 artillery
 Jan/Feb 2011

Male Boxes INSTALLATION, 2010
wood, drywall, cast aluminum, concrete, plaster, collage, oil paint, 
neon, mixed media 
39.5 x 102 x 14 inches

A Symmetry, 2009
graphite, photo collage, plaster, oil on wood with carved wood frame 
and tusks; bolts, animal bone, wire
100 x 66 x 42 inches

Shakti SME, 2010
wood, foam core, plaster, neon, oil, enamel, felt, bolts
59 x 46 x 15 inches

Black & White (Heart), 2010
found wooden frame, plaster, oil paint, wood, neon 
46 x 57 x 8 inches 

I Am, I Shouldn't, I Have To, I'm Not…, 2010 
collage on paper, graphite, oil, resin, wood, electrode 
21 x 15 inches 

Melange, 2010
oil, gold leaf, rubber straps, on canvas with neon
36.5 x 24 inches

Oysterbed, 2009
graphite on foam core and plaster with frame of carved wood, wire, 
plaster, resin, plastic pearls
20 x 20 x 5 inches

Mariah Carey Cracker Salad, 2010 
mixed media collage on paper, latex,  resin, electrode, blue tape
29.5 x 22 inches

Study of a Study, 2010
wood, drywall, plaster, oil paint, resin, wood glue
65.5 x 10 x 13 inches

Snail Spittoon, 2010
graphite on foam core and plaster with frame of carved wood, wire, 
plaster, resin
20 x 19 x 5 inches

Snorkel Bunny, 2010 
oil, enamel, photo collage, neon on canvas, burlap, drywall
68 x 60.5 x 4 inches

Phal-Fem: Chez Marmont, 2010
oil paint on cast aluminum 
97 x 27 x 14 inches

DETAIL



      

Male Boxes, 2010
wood, drywall,  plaster, collage, oil paint, concrete, glass, 
mixed media 
each 12 x 12 x 4 inches

Milk, 2010
graphite and gold leaf on foam core and plaster with frame of carved 
wood, plaster, resin, cast aluminum
24 x 11 x 6 inches

Male Boxes INSTALLATION, 2010
wood, drywall, cast aluminum, concrete, plaster, collage, oil paint, 
neon, mixed media 39.5 x 102 x 14 inches

     

Male Boxes INSTALLATION, 2010
wood, drywall, cast aluminum, concrete, plaster, collage, oil paint, 
neon, mixed media 39.5 x 102 x 14 inches

INSTALLATION

INSTALLATION

INSTALLATION

INSTALLATION

Sister Sapho, 2010
marker, latex on vinyl with found frame
61 x 115.5 inches