Brian Sherwin (born January 22, 1980[1]) is an American art critic, writer, and blogger with a degree from Illinois College in 2003.
Sherwin is a founding Management Team member of the artist social networking site myartspace, where he also served as Senior Editor for six years.
This is unique in its scope in contemporary art writing, encompassing world famous names such as James Rosenquist, as well as relatively unknown artists whom he considers of worth.
His interviews were mentioned in the May 16 and July 19, 2008, editions of the San Francisco Art Institute newsletter "SFAI/INFORM" which is archived SFAI website.
Sherwin's on-going interview series, which has continued on FineArtViews, serves to document aspects of contemporary art culture.
He has interviewed mainstream artists, Michael Craig-Martin, Vito Acconci, James Rosenquist, Sylvia Sleigh, Georgina Starr, Patrick Brill, William T. Wiley, Norman Carlberg, Bo Bartlett, Janet Biggs, Pat Lipsky, Sarah Maple and Aleksandra Mir,[8] artists associated with the underground art scene, Alex Grey, Blaine Fontana, Chet Zar, Mark Ryden, Laurie Lipton, David Stoupakis and Sas Christian,[6] and members of alternative contemporary art movements, Defastenism and Stuckism.
In the course of the interview Sherwin questioned Wales about widespread allegations that Wikipedia has failed to offer adequate art coverage.
Wales later stated that he agreed with art critic Jerry Saltz that some Wikipedia artist entries are "bogus" while others are the "best".
Liam Wyatt of the Wikimedia Foundation stated, "I would argue that, more than any other subject area, Art is so diverse there is no way that we could have hard/fast rules about what makes an artist notable."
Gleason and Sherwin also discussed how art bloggers form a "pack mentality" based on region and perceived significance.
Sherwin's articles for "Hi Fructose" document topics involving the underground and counter culture art scene.
Sherwin has defended the criticism of Mark Vallen, an artist who claims that Shepard Fairey's career has been based on plagiarism and appropriation without attribution.
[31] Nick Rizzuto on the Conservative Punk web site said that Sherwin "makes a pretty good case".
Sherwin has shown support to Brad Holland, co-founder of The Illustrators Partnership of America, who advocates the preservation of creative copyrights on intellectual property.
Sherwin has also allowed limited copyright supporters, such as Alex Curtis of Public Knowledge to offer their view on the subject.