Sherell Chillik was born in 1993 in Detroit, MI. She received her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in painting at the College for Creative Studies in 2018 and will attend Cranbrook Academy of Art in the fall of 2025 for a Master’s in Painting. Chillik began showing her work in competitive national and regional fine art exhibitions in 2019. She taught collage and painting classes for students with disabilities through the Michigan Arts Access Teaching Artist Residency in 2023. In 2024, she attended the Anderson Ranch Art Center Residency in Snowmass Village, CO. Her most recent shows include the “96th MI Contemporary Art Exhibition” at Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, MI, “ 40 Under 40” at the Long Beach Island Foundation of Arts and Sciences in Loveladies, NJ, “43rd Annual Juried competition “A Sense of Place”, at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Georgia and the “ Commuity Consisciousness Exhbition” at the WCCCD Ford Art Gallery in Detroit MI.

Sherell's paintings capture humanity through the African American gaze and are inspired by biographical stories about her faith and earthly desires. She explores the natural world and imaginative landscapes through traditional acrylic figurative paintings. Her artwork captures moments of daily life, travel, portraiture, and contemplation, often reflecting her family and friends. Chillik often positions her family and friends in spaces of luxury, safety, and daydreams. She uses a mixture of a contemporary and a traditional painter's palette, and an intimate-sized paper or canvas to create these figurative works. Often, her work features a subject that is isolated or closely grouped against textured suggested locations or specific landmarks. Chillik enjoys the juxtaposition of reality and fiction and the blurred line between the two, leaving the viewer to decide where the line is drawn.