I lived near a serial killer': Steven Shearer on turning teen angst and death metal into high art

Steven Shearer is a reclusive Canadian artist who avoids interviews and rarely speaks. He believes his work, spanning about 40 years and multiple media, communicates more effectively through pictures than through conversation. His practice includes paintings of long-haired teens, collages using appropriated images, and billboard-sized poetry inspired by heavy metal lyrics. He tries to stay out of the way once the work is made, and he is nervous about being interviewed. He has kept his face largely off the internet, and he prefers not to meet people who might respond to his work in ways that would require personal explanation. Even collectors sometimes note they have collected an artist they have never met.

"Maybe the Canadian artist thinks his work spanning 40 years and multiple media, including stunning paintings of long-haired teens, collages of appropriated images, and billboard-sized poetry inspired by heavy metal lyrics speaks for itself. But Shearer's work doesn't really speak, at least not clearly; it mumbles awkwardly into its sleeve like a goth at a family Easter picnic. I wrote down lots of potential things to say, he says from his immaculate white studio in Vancouver, ahead of his show at David Zwirner Gallery in London, his first UK exhibition since 2007, but it's not my nature."

"All the hope or will to be able to communicate kind of goes into the pictures. And I try to stay out of the way once that's happened. Staying out of the way Steven Shearer's studio, taken by the artist. Photograph: Steven Shearer Courtesy the artist, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, and David Zwirner And boy has he managed to stay out of the way. Somehow, he has never allowed any pictures of his face to find their way on to the internet (though you may find some that seem to be him)."

"He is handsome, fit and hip, his blond hair swept back as he deliberates over his answers and shows me slowly around his meticulous workspace with its huge collages, enormous printers and perfectly hung works in progress. He is nervous about the interview, but I know you're sympathetic to what I do, he says. Surely he doesn't often encounter people unsympathetic to his work? I know people like it, but it's just better in some ways if I never talk to them."

"I'll meet collectors and they'll say: Oh, you're the only artist we've collected that we've never met.' I just think to myself, well, I've ruined that. Despite his awkwardness, Shearer is a star in the art world. He has cau"

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