Michael Shaw is a visual artist whose work focuses on income inequality and the wealth divide. He works primarily with cyanotypes, which provide a limited structure to work within and against, mirroring the limitations of affordable living. His method requires a dense web of masking tape in varying widths, rips and thicknesses – a painstaking, brick-by-brick process that honors the culturally humble structures of the neighborhoods he seeks to protect. In art historical terms, Shaw depicts modern representations of the ‘home of the serf’ who exists in the murky class system of the U.S.

 

MICHAEL SHAW C.V.

2011- present:  Creator/host of The Conversation Art Podcast

 

EXHIBITIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021                Projecting Possibilities, projection at the Helms Design Center, Culver City

2005                Groundwork,  Los Angeles, CA

TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2018                “Superimposed,” Eastside International, Los Angeles, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024     “Meshuganah,” (upcoming), A Very Serious Gallery, Chicago, IL

2023     Nomad II, Torrance Art Museum pop-up, Torrance, CA

2023     Fall Fundraiser, Rory Devine Fine Art

2023     “South LA is Not For Sale,” Community Coalition, Los Angeles, CA

2023     “Sociality” at LA Tate Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2022     The Auction Collective, benefit auction for SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition: It’s My House!, online auction

2022    “It’s My House!,” Porch Gallery, Ojai, CA

2020    LSH CoLAB, group show, Hollywood, CA

2019    “Skill Tree,” Honey Ramka gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2017   “Like Oxygen,” Mountain gallery, Brooklyn, NY – http://mountain.xhbtr.com/like-oxygen

2016-17    PØST, Fundraising Auction, Los Angeles, CA

2014   “Exquisite Corpse,” MASS Gallery, Austin, TX

2014   “Object Object!!” Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA

2009   Fluxco gallery, Los Angeles “Inadvertent Rapture,” Los Angeles, CA

2007  Sabina Lee gallery, Los Angeles, CA Holiday group show

2007  Fluxco gallery, Los Angeles, CA “Fovea,” group show

2007  Don O’Melveney Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “PlayItGround,” group show

2000  Eyewash, Brooklyn, NY “Selections”

1999  Eyewash, Brooklyn, NY Offbeat- Humor in Life and art

1997  Alleged, New York, NY

1996  Marymount Manhattan College, New York, NY ‘Pieces of Eight’

1995  Black + Herron Space, New York, NY ‘Ooze’

CURATED

2017   “Focus Group,” (curated) Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles CA – (http://www.cjamesgallery.com/show-detail/focus-group)

2015 Antioch University Los Angeles library gallery, Katrina Umber

2015 Antioch University Los Angeles library gallery Terence Hannum

2014 Antioch University Los Angeles library gallery: Aaron Morse

2009   Fluxco gallery, Los Angeles “Inadvertent Rapture,” Los Angeles, CA

AWARDS, RESIDENCIES & PUBLICATIONS

2023                Culver Arts, Culver City Arts Foundation Grant

2023                Ellsworth Artist Residency Program, Art Share L.A. (Fall residency)

2022                   Space on Space magazine, “Urban Theater in Plain Site”

2022                Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grant

2022                Puffin Grant, for project “Housing’s Final Frontier”

2021                Center for Cultural Innovation, Quick Grant

2021                Center for Artistic Activism, Unstoppable Voters Workshop

2021                Center for Artistic Activism, Supercorsa workshop

2021                Center for Artistic Activism, Supercorsa workshop; Center for Artistic Activism, Unstoppable Voters Workshop

Hunter College, New Student Award

EDUCATION

Hunter College, City University of New York           MFA

U.C. Los Angeles                                                         BA

Born in Baltimore, Maryland