Rhonda Roland Shearer

Rhonda Roland Shearer is an American sculptor, art historian, and journalist noted for emergency relief work following the September 11 attacks and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forbes has described her as an expert on Dadaist art. In 1998, Shearer co-founded the Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL) with evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould. As a sculptor, she has exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, and London, as well as other U.S. cities. Her work has been widely published in art and science journals, such as Harvard Press's The Languages of the Brain."

Art Science Research Laboratory

Shearer is the director of Art Science Research Laboratory, a nonprofit based in SoHo, Manhattan. The organization maintains what The New York Times described as the largest private collection of historical objects and reference materials related to Marcel Duchamp available to the public. These resources supported work by Shearer and Gould concerning Duchamp’s readymades, including the view that his found objects, so-called, were optical experiments only later executed as replicas under Duchamp’s supervision. Shearer and a team of researchers undertook a systemetized audit that incorporated digital/physical models and forensic photographs to catalogue the inconsistencies within Duchamp’s own emphasis on seriality and a non‑retinal, “scientific” perspective. Her research shows how independent documentary studies of Fountain and other readymades have also underscored how much of the readymade discourse rests on images and reconstructions rather than extant, original mass‑products.

Science and academic research

Shearer has held several research appointments, including as Technical Director and Principal Investigator for NASA’s Astrobiology Magazine, from 1999 to 2018. In 1999 she was a visiting scholar Harvard University’s Department of Psychology. “From Flatland To Fractaland: New Geometries In Relationship To Artistic And Scientific Revolutions” was one of the two keynote talks presented at Benoit Mandelbrot's festschrift in 1996. Shearer's remarks were later published in Fractal Geometry and Analysis.

Public interest and emergency response

Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shearer founded Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE)—including masks, gloves, sanitizing supplies, and hazmat suits—to hospital staff, firefighters, organizations serving people with special needs, and low-income communities. By May 2020, Shearer had borrowed more than $600,000 against property to fund the effort and sought additional crowdfunding. Following the pandemic Shearer's work was cited by Bradley Martin, Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND corporation, as a potential stockpiling model for future supply-chain shortages.

Ground Zero Frontline Response

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Shearer and her daughter organized the distribution of supplies to personnel working at the World Trade Center site. Shearer converted ASRL’s ~3,000 sq ft residential loft and art studio, located about one mile from the World Trade Center, into a supply hub where volunteers distributed gloves, respirators, hard hats, boots, clothing, tools, and other items. Shearer told The Washington Post she borrowed about $1 million to finance the operation, later repaid with donations from foundations and individuals.

Housing Works

Shearer participated in the early development of Housing Works, an AIDS-service organization founded in 1991. She proposed using upscale thrift stores as a revenue source and, with then-husband H. Joseph Allen, contributed $100,000 in seed funding to launch the concept.

Media ethics and reporting

Under ASRL’s umbrella, Shearer has overseen digital publishing with a media-ethics focus, including iMediaEthics.org (formerly StinkyJournalism.org).

Shearer won the 2012 Mirror Award for Best Single Article in the Digital Media category as publisher of IMediaEthics.org, with Malik Ayub Sumbal on the murder of Benazir Bhutto in "Mrs. Bhutto’s Murder Anniversary Part 1: Troubling Double Standard, American photojournalism’s different treatment of foreign victims."

Work as a sculptor

As a sculptor, she has exhibited her work in New York City, Los Angeles and London. Her installation Woman’s Work used eight bronze sculptures of women undertaking various domestic tasks to draw attention to society's undervaluing of such activities and how such tasks were typically left to and expected of women.

In 1996, Shearer exhibited Shapes Of Nature, 10 Years Of Bronze Sculptures in The New York Botanical Garden, which experimented in the use of fractals as a new way to look at space and form. The Economist posited the differing views of fractals between scientists and artists, such as Nathaniel Friedman and Shearer. The latter was quoted as saying, "It<nowiki>'s a new way of looking at space and form. For the artists, nothing is more fundamental.</nowiki>