Portrait of Sheryl Oring. Sheryl is wearing a crimson blouse with matching nails and looks straight at the viewer through rounded square glasses. She is seated at a small desk occupied by a dark typewriter. Behind her are panels on the wall, each with a note pertaining to contemporary political issues.
Leadership

Sheryl Oring is dean of the School of Art. As an artist, she investigates social issues through projects that blend old and new media as a way to tell stories, explore public opinion and invite an open exchange of ideas.

Sheryl Oring’s work has been shown at Bryant Park in New York City, the Berlin Wall Memorial, the Jewish Museum Berlin, the 01SJ Biennial in San Jose and the San Diego Museum of Art, as well as in major festivals, such as Encuentro in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Art Prospect Festival, St. Petersburg. Her artist books are in numerous collections, including the Library of Congress; the Tate Modern, London; and the Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg.

Sheryl Oring - I Wish To Say

In 2004, Oring began I Wish to Say, for which she has typed nearly 4,300 postcards at dozens of locations across the country and has sent them to four different U.S. presidents. Across the project’s more than 100 performances, Oring dons 1960s secretary attire and establishes a makeshift office—complete with a vintage manual typewriter—in a public place. Passersby are invited to dictate postcards to the sitting president. After typing them verbatim, Oring sends the original postcards to the White House and keeps a copy for her project archive, hosted by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Library. Oring presented a virtual iteration of the project during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2016, she was joined by 60 of her students to present a large-scale version in New York’s Bryant Park.

Awards & Accolades

Oring is a Creative Capital grantee and has received support from

  • Franklin Furnace Fund,
  • New York Foundation for the Arts,
  • North Carolina Arts Council,
  • American Council on Germany and
  • numerous other organizations.

 

Visit Sheryl Oring’s website.

Follow Sheryl Oring on Instagram.

Artists' Books Unshelved | Performing The Book

Yuka Petz examines the ways artists create relationships between performance and their books, including Sheryl Oring's “I wish to say…vol 2.”