artist statement

I am fascinated by the conflict between the inner and outer lives of human experience, between the self’s placid exterior and its churning, riotous core. Painting, I believe, is a good medium to both capture and illuminate this tension. There are lyrical and ornate aspects to my work, influenced in part by childhood recollections of color and patterns, but underneath and complementing this colorful surface lurks desperation, fragility, violence, and insatiable desire.

I am drawn to opposing forces—subject matter both gentle and abrasive, clean and dirty, fantastic and real—especially as these play out in the social constructions of gender. My paintings evolve from the personal mythos of my memories. Culled from a range of photographic sources, my subjects are composites, sharing traits both male and female, childlike and adult, animal and human.

As such, there is innocence as well as that which threatens it in my paintings. I mix flirtation with aggression, humor with power, and vulnerability with inner-strength. Often I will present an image of conventional domesticity only to subvert it, thereby displacing and disrupting traditional relationship tropes. I hope to evoke the vicissitudes of memory and circumstance with my paintings, and ultimately provoke the viewer to question what lies beneath the surface.



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SHARON SHAPIRO
Born:Bluefield, WV
Lives and works in Charlottesville, VA
434.825.3911 | sharon@sharonshapiro.com | sharonshapiro.com

EDUCATION
BFA, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

Grants and Residencies
2011 Residency, The Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, GA
2009 Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
2000 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Professional Fellowship

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011California, {Poem 88} at Tanner Hill Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008 New Watercolors and Paintings, Livity, Charlottesville, VA
2007 Half of What You See, Brenau University Art Gallery, Gainesville, GA
2005 OSP Gallery, Boston, MA
2004 It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
2002 Treat, Solomon Projects, Atlanta, GA
1999 Hybrid, Lyons Wier Gallery, Chicago, IL
Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
1998 Inhabitant, Solomon Projects, Atlanta, GA
Work, SOHO20 Gallery, New York, NY,

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012 Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2012 Exhibit, University of Mary
Washington Gallery, Fredericksburg, VA (forthcoming)
2011 The Optimist: an Art Exhibition for World AIDS Day, East Gallery, London, UK
(Curated by David Garrard)
No Greater Gods, University of Virginia Law Library, Charlottesville, VA
Works on Paper, {Poem 88}, Atlanta, GA
The American Dream: a Juxtaposition, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
New Waves 2011, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA (forthcoming)
2010 Intimacy Issues, Reed Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Playful Things, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO
Seeing Double, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA (curated by Kristina Durocher)
2009 Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2010 Exhibit, University of Mary Washington Gallery,
Fredericksburg, VA
2008 Tasty Morsels, ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA
2007 Guilty Pleasures, Spur Projects, Portola Valley, CA
2006 Image Feminine, Lawrence Asher Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
New Work, J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Inside Out, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2003 30 YEARS: Three Decades of Art at Second Street Gallery, Second Street
Gallery,Charlottesville, VA
2002 Sugar & Spice, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2011 Gleim, Sarah. "In Verse!" Jezebel Magazine. December 2011, p.53.
GILT Contributor. “Inspirations: Color Theory.” GILT.com 29 Nov 2011. Web.
Lawless. Gregory. "A California Suite: Poem by Peter Ramos & Paintings by Sharon Shapiro."
ithoughtiwasnewhere.com. May 12, 2011. Web.
Feaster, Felicia. "Art Review: Dreams of Californication in Sharon Shapiro's Solo Show
at {Poem 88}."ArtsCriticATL.com. March 28, 2011. Web.
Williams, Wyatt. "Censorship as compliment: Sharon Shapiro at Poem 88."
Creative Loafing – Culture Surfing, March 25, 2011. Web.
40Fakes Contributor. "Sharon Shapiro." 40Fakes. March 11, 2011. Web.
Wolf, Debra. "Beautiful Breasts Cause Controversy in Atlanta." Daily Plate of Crazy.
February 27, 2011. Web.
2009 Hackett, Regina. "Artists dissatisfied with the slow pace of evolution."
Another Bouncing Ball on Arts Journal. 14 August 2009. Web.

Summer Sexy Contributor. "'Then the Dream Changed' and 'Ease' Selected
by Howard Tullman." Summer Sexy. 17 July 2009. Web.
Parsons, Laura. "Raw Talent: Shapiro and Read Bare All." The Hook, March 12, 2009.
2008 Cator, Eric. “Sharon Shapiro.” PaintBlog. 25 May 2008. Web.
2007 Fox, Catherine. “Painter’s Keen Eye Unmasks Cultural Failings.” Atlanta
Journal Constitution, September 16, 2007.
Best Artist, C-Ville Weekly: Best of Issue, August 4, 2007.
Alexander, Mike. “Interview with Sharon Shapiro.” Albemarle Magazine,
February/March 2007, 22, 23.
Davis, Jeremy. “Sharon Shapiro Interview.” Vivianite. 2007. Web.
2006 Rose, Joshua, and Terri Dodd. “American Art Collector: The Tullman
Collector.” American Art Collector Magazine, October 2006, 77.

“Leading Ladies Part II.” American Art Collector Magazine, February 2006, 98-99.
2005 “OA Gallery.” The Oxford American, Fall 2005, 32.
McQuaid, Kate. “Gallery Pick.” The Boston Globe, March 24, 25.
“The Front.” The Oxford American, Winter 2005, 12-13.
2004 Parsons, Laura. “Gender Studies.”, The Hook, September 9, 2004, 9.
“Circles Roundabout (featured piece).” Veranda Magazine. December 2004, 220.
2003 Miami Houses. Barcelona, Spain: Loft Publications, 2003.
2002 McQuaid, Kate. “The Stories ‘Portraits’ Tell Us.” The Boston Globe, March 28, 2002.
Workman, Michael. “The Perception of Physical Desire: A Conversation with
Cover Image. New American Paintings, no. 39(May 2002),126-129.
Cullum, Jerry. “Pretty ‘Treats’ That Could be Troubling.” The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, February 15, 2002, Q6.
2001 Joiner, Dorothy. Review. Art Papers, September/October 2001, 35.
Cover Image. West Branch (Bucknell University Press), no. 48(Spring 2001).
“Modern Romance: Chassie Post in Tribeca (featured piece).” House
Beautiful, March 2001, 106, 111.
2000 New American Paintings, no. 27(April 200): 138-141.
1999 Cover Image. Decorating Magazine (Better Homes and Gardens Special
Interest Publications), Winter 1999, 14.

EXHIBITION CATALOGS
2010 New American Paintings 15th Anniversary. Edited by Steven T. Zevitas.
Boston, MA: The Open Studio Press
Playful Things: Examining the Role of Female Identity in Contemporary Art.
Edited by Jeremy Mikolajczak. Warrensburg, MO: Gallery of Art and Design, University
of Central Missouri, With essay by Nancy K. Weant.
2007 Half of What You See. With essay by Debra Wolf. Gainesville, GA:
Brenau University, 2007.
2006 Image Feminine: Laurent Dareau, Sharon Shapiro, Daena Tittle. Edited by
James Panozzo. Los Angeles, CA: Lawrence Asher Gallery, 2006.
2004 It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity. Edited by Leah Stoddard.
Charlottesville, VA: Second Street Gallery, 2004. With essay by Jerry Cullum,
“Reimagining the Humidity Index: Notes on New Drawings and Paintings by Sharon Shapiro.”
2003 Select 2003 Art Auction. Edited by Amy Moorefield. Washington, DC:
Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran Gallery of Art, 2003.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA
The Tullman Collection, Chicago IL
Brenau University Gallery, Gainesville, GA
Stan Topol & Associates, Atlanta, GA
King & Spalding, Atlanta, GA
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, Atlanta, GA
Saks Fifth Avenue, Cherry Hill, NJ
Silverchair Communications, Charlottesville, VA
Mr. Michael G. Klein, Beverly Hills, CA
Ms. Chassie Post, New York, NY
Ms. Carol Cole-Levin, Greensboro, NC