Biography from Meibohm Fine Arts, Inc.
John Yerger (American, 1935-) Western New York artist, teacher, juror and art critic, is a native of Buffalo, NY and has worked as a professional artist for most of his adult life. He is known for his objet d’art miniature paintings, landscapes, still lifes, and in more recent years, a series of trompe l’oeil paintings, which are fitting tributes to America’s most legendary artists. Yerger studied art at the Art Institute of Buffalo, NY and at Vesper George School of Art, Boston, MA. Numerous artists have trained under him and he has also held workshops at the Partners In Art Gallery, N. Tonawanda, NY.
His works, while evolving over the years in the technique of miniature objet d’art, slowly started to incorporate elements of trompe l’oeil and for the last five years, he has devoted himself exclusively to this technique which fools the eye. The technique involves extremely realistic imagery to create an optical illusion that the depicted objects really exist, instead of actually being a two-dimensional painting. Tapping into the sensation of wonderment he experienced as a young man upon first seeing the works of American painters like Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer and Albert Bierstadt at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Yerger has melded his meticulous technical facility with a deeply personal source of inspiration.
In 2003, Yerger along with fellow Western New York artist Richard F. Kersting formed The Miniature Art Society of Western New York (currently no longer active) upon realization that a miniaturist art group did not exist in Western New York or even New York State. The Society, limited to only ten members, followed the standards of contemporary miniaturism shared by a small number of organizations in the U.S. and abroad. The Society focused on miniature objet d’art which is a venerable and universally appealing art form, respected by serious collectors world-wide.
Of Yerger, William Gerdts wrote: “Yerger has mastered not only the formulae of Trompe l’oeil but also through his profound study and love of the history of American art, has paid homage to that history by incorporating it into his still-life paintings. That love is all-encompassing, as he has reproduced, even duplicated, though not always partially, the romantic portraits of Gilbert Stuart and Rembrandt Peale, the quiet exactitude of Asher B. Durand and the Hudson River School, the panoramic vastness of Albert Bierstadt, the luminescent landscapes of Sanford Gifford, the fresh naturalism of Winslow Homer’s country imagery, the high-style portraiture of John Singer Sargent, the brilliantly-colored maternalism of Mary Cassatt, and the impressionist light, air, and color of Frank Benson-all expressed within the bounds of Traditional trompe l’oeil, and yet with the sure knowledge, ability, and passion of each artists’ creative process.”*
